IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) Y / o {/ % 1^ C*n ''m^.-^ *v. -Sf / ^6 1.0 I.I 1.25 U|2e lis IM M 2.2 M 1.8 U III 1.6 V] <^ /i ^>. c^. ^?. % 'r. w Photographic Sciences Corporation s. fV ^ 4>^ (v \\ A ^9) \- ^>\4^rS # >> 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4S03 Pi? , -,:--. .i-,-.,..^- r .tt>-j^"i?||^^- Q. Q- CIHM/ICMH Microfiche Series. CIHM/ICMH Collection de microfiches. Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions / Institut Canadian de microreproductions historiques .i^a^^Jt^m^jfeii^^t^fei^^a^SJ^a^^'g^ "S'tagwttap Technical and Bibliographic Notes/Notes techniques et bibliographiques The Institute has attempted ^o obtain the best original copy available for filming. Features of this copy which may be bibliographically unique, which may alter any of the images in the reproduction, or which may significantly change the usual method of filming, are checked below. L'Institut a microfilm^ le meilleur exemplaire qu'il lui a 6t6 possible de se procurer. Les details de cet exemplaire qui sont peut-dtre uniques du point de vue bibliographique, qui peuvent modifier une image reproduite, ou qui peuvent exiger une modification dans la miSthode normale de filmage sont indiquds ci-dessous. -r t D Coloured covers/ Couverture de couleur I I Covers damaged/ Couverture endommag^e Covers restored and/or laminated/ Couverture restaur^e et/ou pelliculde Cover title missing/ Le titre de couverture manque Coloured maps/ Cartes gdographiques en couleur □ Coloured ink (i.e. other than blue or black)/ Encre de couleur (i.e. autre que bleue ou noire) □ Coloured plates and/or illustrations/ Planches et/ou illustrations en couleur n ^ □ Coloured pages/ Pages de couleur □ Pages damaged/ Pages endomriag6es □ Pages restored and/or laminated/ Pages restaurdes et/ou peilicul^es j — I Pages discoloured, stained or foxed/ D D Bound with other material/ Reli6 avec d'autres documents Tight binding may cause shadows or distortion along interior margin/ La reliure serr^e peut causer de I'ombre ou de la distortion le long de la marge int^rieure Blank leaves added during restoration may appear within the text. Whenever possible, these have been omitted from filming/ II se peut que certaines pages blanches ajoutdes lors d'une restauration apparaissent dans le texte, mais, lorsque cela 6tait possible, ces pages n'ont pas 6t6 film6es. Additional comments:/ Commentaires suppl^mentaires; This item is filmed at the reduction ratio checked below/ Ce document est film6 au taux de reduction indiqud ci-dessous. 10X 14X 18X 22X Pages d6color6es, tachetdes ou piqu^es Pages detached/ Pages ddtach^es □ Showthrough/ Transparence I I Quality of print varies/ Quality indgale de I'impression Includes supplementary material/ Comprend du materiel supplementaire Only edition available/ Seule Edition disponible Pages wholly or partially obscured by errata slips, tissues, etc., have been refilmed to ensure the best possible image/ Les pages totalement om partiellement obscurcies par un feuillet d'errata, une pelure, etc., ont et6 film6es d nouveau de facon d obtenir la meilleure image possible. 26X 30X 12X 16X 20X I 28X 32X "^''wnnMijB (ffiM«waiMiljiiliMli»WliM mmtm m s umm re l^tails 9S du Tiodifier 9r une ilmage tes e The copy filmed here has been reproduced thanks to the generosity of: Library of Congress Photoduplication Service The images appearing here are the best quality possible considering the condition and legibility of the original copy and in keeping with the filming contract specifications. Original copies in printed paper covers are filmed beginning with the front cover and ending on the last page with a printed or illustrated impres- sion, or the back cover when appropriate. All other original copies are filmed beginning on the first page with a printed or illustrated impres- sion, and ending on the last page with a printed or illustrated impression. The last recorded frame on each microfiche shall contain the symbol -^ (meaning "CON- TINUED "). or the symbol V (meaning "END"), whichever applies. Maps, plates, charts, etc., may be filmed at different reduction ratios. Those too large to be entirely included in one exposure are filf/ti^d beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to right and top to bottom, as many frames as required. The following diagrams illustrate the method: L'exemplaire film* fut reproduit grAce A la gAnArosit* de: Library of Congress Photoduplication Service Les images suivantes ont 6t6 reproduites avec le plus grand soin, compte tenu de la condition et de la nattetA de rexemplaire film6, et en conformity avec les conditions du contrat de fiimage. Les exemplaires originaux dont la couverture en papier est imprimAe sont filmis en commenpant par le premier plat et en terminant soit par la dernlAra page qui comporte une empreinte d'imprassion ou d'illustration, soit par le second plat, salon le cas. Tous les autires exemplaires originaux sont filmts en commenpant par la premiAre page qui comporte une empreinte d'imprassion ou d'illustration et en terminant par la dernlAre page qui comporte une telle empreinte. Un des symboles suivants apparaftra sur la dernlAre image de cheque microfiche, selon le cas: le symbole -^ signifie "A SUIVRE", le symbole V signifie "FIN". Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc.. peuvent dtre filmAs A des taux de reduction diff6rents. Lorsqua la document est trop grand pour dtre reproduit en un seul ciichA. 11 est filmA d partir de I'angia supArieur gauche, de gauche d droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'imagas n6cessaire. Les diagrammes suivants lllustront la mithode. i errata d to It IB pelure, pon d -n 32X I 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 ^ ^ ; • 6 MhBM mt»9 aVwc >5 T . < y -v 3 ■■■-■' »^ ^ ■ 'I'l ■ S / .'ii '/'.-^ r*» \ "^S > -•— J^ •4'*—^, 1 'J '■>; 'V~> .-^^4 > ^^\^ ^ "h ^ \ in [T > M** IVHtM ♦/ I'i' » L -1 t*. »•. I'!'- -■<-; t 1: «e \S- .Y S" AT -^^ "^'Q 1 * J' /. IS/ f ,. - ,»^--- ''•*■ . \ I \ / / Ml Ji' > '\''' 111 '' --aJ ^; '*h \l ->:'\ » I ) i' HO] A B THE HOLY LAND AND THE BilU.E. A BOOK OF SCh'/PTURF: ILLUSTRATIOXS GATUERKD IN PALKSTINE. wr / CUNNINGHAM GEIKIE, D.D., 7 Vkar "f •'>''• M'i>-tiii'i< at Palace, Norwich. WITH A MAP OF PALEHTINE. ^-' Vol. T. CASSELL & COMPANY, Limited; LONDON, PARIS .0 MELROURSE. 1887. [>I.l RIOUTS KESEPAED. I IT ^ a-J , • t ■ . • ■ * * " T MUST 1 »• - ■ , ■ a. J '00 • already t another, < view in \a , * ." nearly ev been abl V ■-"",■ unquestic I vis illustratic ' • " ► valleys, i plants an the pictu in the da tive or c than the - , • throwing imagery meaning be adeqi divine pc alike cal % • " with the rr PREFACE. I MUST urge it in explanation of my adding to the already copious literature treating, from one aspect or another, of the Holy Land, that J(]\o aim I have had in view in writing this book has been difterent from that ol' nearly every other work on Palestine, and that, if 1 have been able to carry it out successfully, the result should unquestionably prove very useful. I visited Palestine with the intention of gathering illustrations of the sacred writings from its hills and valleys, its rivers and lakes, its plains and uplands, its plants and animals, its skies, its soil, and, above all, from the pictures of ancient times still presented on every side in the daily life of its people. Nothing is more instruc- tive or can be more charming, when reading Scripture, than the illumination of its texts from such sources, throwing light upon its constantly recurring Oriental imagery and local allusions, and revealing the exact meaning of words and phrases which otherwise could not be adequately understood. Its simple narratives, its divine poetry, its prophetic visions, its varied teachings, alike catch additional vividness and force when read with the aid of such knowledge. The Land is, in fact, a ^ ' PREFACE. natural commoiitary on tlu- sacr.'d writinj^'s which it has j,Mvoii to us, and we study them us it were anii.lst th.- life, the scenery, and the looal pet;uliarities which sur- rounded those to whom tlio Scriptures were lirst addressed. Whih' descrihin ^ itiiiirs wliich it lias it wen* luiiiilst tin liaritit's which sni- wcre first addressed, stricts of the Holy i\t sites, their past ve sou<;ht to j^iither le ilhistrivtion of the A i^lance at the all the country is ssive portions, from itnits: that is, from| id IJeirout — an areal the Old and New s quoted have been for the reader, from ?rsions, or from the )ns from the ordinary in order to express uch a course seemed C. G. CON T E N T S . • niAI'TEU I. IJiU'pa and its Nkiqhdoubhoou ... ... 1 CHAITER II. I LVDOAH— RaMLKII . . '* CllAITKU III. ITiik Plain ok Sharon . . ^ CHArXKU IV. Ic.ksarea— Atiilit . , . I . • '^^ ClIAl'TEU V. • Itiie Philihtine Plain and Samson's Countkv . . . . 82 CIIAITKH VI. I Localities Famous in David's Lifk 105 ClIArTEU VII. ■ ■ |\Amhdod — Mejdel ^-' ClIAl'TEU VIII. IGaza . . 1^ CHAITER IX. :, IAsualon ♦ ♦ . . • lo8 CHAPTER X. ' . |0.V THE WAT TO QERAB . 209 CHAPTER XI. IGkrar . . 235 ^ CONTENTS. CIIAl'TKU XII. „„, Ukkrhiikha » . ' . . . . • 2.>l ClIArTEIt XIII. OaSSA to FAIiUJKH , , . . 207 CliAl'TKU XIV. Fai.ujeh to Beit JiDitiN.-TiiK Uoai' thknuk to IIkbhon . 2i)'2 CIIAl"'. HI! XV. HKIIRON .....; "''* CHAPTF.U XVI. The Country South ok Hkiiron "*> CIIAITKK XVII. The Country North ov Hkiikon ^^'^ CHAI'TKU XVIII. Frtas ^^'' ■ CIIAl'TKU XIX. . Bethlehem ^"^ CHArTEK XX. Bethlehem to Jerusalem . . . ■ • • • * ^'^ CUAPTER XXI. Jekusalem CHAPTER XXn. Jerusalem (continued) ' *^° CHAPTER XXIII. Jerusalem (continued) ^'■'' CHAPTER XXIV. Bound Jerusaxkm ^^9 fknn U TO liUBftON t • • • • 2D'J 814 34r> 368 380 405 435 457 486 539 TlIK HOLY LAND AND THE BIJU.E. CIIAl'THlt I. JOPPA AND TTS NETOIinoiTIlFfOOD. A niiK.ADTii of ai)])iirently level foref^M-ound, l)iU'ko(l by a ran^^! of purple hills, so nearly of'tHpial hei^'ht tliat they seem to form a table-land, is the first aspect of Pales- tine as the voya<,'er eoasts alonj; it from E^yj)t in (tne of the numerous steamers which now touch at th(> dilTerent ])orts. Our destination is Joppa — " the Heautiful," or, Ijcrhaps, " the High " — one of the oldest cities in the world,' and the first possible landin<,'-place as we sail northwards. There it is, at last, risin<,' before us on its sloping,' hill, a hundred and lifty-three feet high; the Ihit-roofed houses looking down, terrace after terrace, on tile waters. JIalf a mile out, steam is let off and the anchors slipjjed, for it is unsafe for large vessels to go any nearer the town. A strong west wind might drive them on the rocks, as there is no breakwater or harbour to offer shelter, and sudden steaming to sea must always he easy. There is no difficulty, however, in getting ashore, if one have faith in the oarsmen who swarm round as soon as a vessel anchors. Competition reigns at Joppa as • Jiiffa is Jaapu in Assyrian, B .«aiytt^«>ii^»^=iiJ#B»a>-.-'fc^-^'^^-'^V--i-^ THE HOLY LAND AND THE BIBLE. [Chap. elscwliore. Many more boats than can find passcnj^nTs crowd towards tlie stops lot down to the wator from the dock. A Bahol of cries, unintelligible to Western cars, tills the air. The motley thron<>: of deck passengers of the most varied nationalities, who have till now littered three-fourths of the deck with their bedding and baggage, fare best in the noisy exodus, for they are virtually at home, knowing the language of the boatmen, and able at once to strike a bargain with them, witliout a contest •About prices. For the last half-hour they have been busy packing. Veiled women who sat apart with their children, in a spot railed off for them, are now on the wing with the rest. Figures in every variety of Eastern costume ; Arabs with shawls over their heads, and striped brown- and-white " abbas," or mantles ; black Nubians with red fezzes, blue cotton jackets and trousers; brown Levantines m European dress; Syrians or Egyptians, in turbans and flowing robes of all shades, press towards the stairs, many of them throwing their softer packages over the ship's side into the boat they have chosen, to facilitate their departure. Bare legs and feet are mingled with French boots and red or yellow slippers; smooth faces, with formidable black beards, or venerable white ones. But the storm is too violent to last. Each minute sees it by degrees subside, as boat after boat shoots off under the oar-strokes of stron :-armed rowers, no less strange in their dress than any of their passengers. The boats for Europeans and those who shrink from the native crowd, have not long to wait, and at last we • too are sweeping towards the town. But it needs skill as well as strength to make the voyage safely. The nearly flat-bottomed cobles have to steer through an opening in the reefs only about a hundred feet wide, and the swell which rises with the daily forenoon land breeze I.] nia3 the oec: and rocli sem otlu the boal and The acco OUCi .Mo( by s BIBLE. [Chap. I] JOPPA AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD. n find passcni^ors lie water from the to Western ears, ock passeny-ers of e till now littered ,din«5 and bagi^a^^e, y are virtually at boatmen, and able , without a contest ley have been busy ,vith their children, on the wing with [■ Eastern costume ; md striped brown- Nubians with red ; brown Levantines ptians, in turbans towards the stairs, packages over the ;hosen, to facilitate are mingled with pers; smooth faces, tierable white ones. Each minute sees lat shoots off under ;, no less strange in •s. se who shrink from ivait, and at last we But it needs skill voyage safely. The » steer through an ndred feet wide, and forenoon land breeze may carry them too much to one side or the other. If the sea be rough there is real danger, for boats are occasionally lost, and as sharks are not unknown, they and the water oiler two ways out of the world. The rocks stretch north and south before the town, in a semicircle, some of them rising high out of tlie water; others only indicated by the surf breaking over them ; the perilous entrance being known only to the local boatmen. Once through it, however, danger is past, and we find ourr-elves in a broad but shallow harbour. There is a wider opening to the north, seldom used on account of its distance from the port; and there was once, apparently, a tliird place of possible landing, at the ^loon-pool, to the south, but this has long been closed by silt and sand. Landing is itself a new sensation for Europeans. Some twenty or thirty yards from the shore you are seized and carried off in the bare arms or on the back of a boatman ; the water being too shallow to permit a nearer approach to the old tumble-down quay, built of stones from the ruins of Ca.>sarea ; the base or capital of a pillar sticking out here and there, mixed with great bevelled blocks of conjectural antiquity. Strong a;nis lift and push you up a rough step or two, and you are fairly ashore, to find yourself amidst the houses, streets, and people of a new world. There has always been tlie same difficulty in landing, for the rocks have been as formidable from the bearinnintr of time, the water over them as treacherous, and the inside bay as shallow off shore, so that you liave fared no worse than head-eyed Greeks or hook-nosed Komans did thousands of years ago. While Palestine was held by the Christian nations, Venice organised a spring and autumn packet-service to Joppa, and built a mole, of B 2 4 THE HOLY LAND AND THE BIBLE. [Chap. which the remains wore still visible last century, to pro- tect the shipi)ing. appears, however, to have been of little use, and since tlien, luuler the Arab and Turk, every- thing,- has relapsed into a state of nature. On a coast so exposed the beach must always have been strewn with wrecks after great storms, before steam enabled vessels to bear out to sea and escape. About thirty years ago the remains of a galley of great anticputy were dug up, ni some excavations on the shore; and Joseph us telis us of a terrible loss of life in a gale off the port in the reign of Vespasian.^ Phamician, Egyptian, Syrian, lloman. Crusading, and modern fleets have all alike paid their tribute to the angry waters. But I must mount my donkey and get to the hotel, at the north end of the town. No trouble has been given at the Custom House ; indeed, I had nothing to do with it, a dragoman, or guide, who speaks English, managing all, for me and the rest of the European passengers. The road leads along a miserable apology for a street. Once paved, the stones have long ago risen or sunk into the ideal of roughness. No thought of drainage crosses the mind of an Orrental ; the space before his door serving for a sewer. Dust-bins are equally a Western innovation, of which the East has not heard, so that every kind of foulness and abomination bestrews the way, or rises in pestilent heaps at its side. The buildings are of stone, with little or no wood in any part, timber being so scarce in Palestine that stone is. used instead. The arcli is, hence, universal, alike in places of business, houses, piazzas, or offices. As you jog on, you see that no light enters the shops except from the front— that they are, in fact, like miniatures of the gloomy holes made out of railway-arches among us. > Jos. Beil. Jud., iii. 9, 3. Evou Josc-plius describes Jopim as uot untu- rally a liarbour. M BIBLE. [Chap. t century, to pro- ■, to have been of b and Turk, every- •e. On a coast so been strewn with enabU'd vessels to lirty years ago the y were dug up, in osephus telis us of port in the reign I, Syrian, lloman, 11 alike paid their iret to the hotel, at ble has been given nothing to do with English, managing n pas..engers. The for a street. Once • sunk into the ideal ; crosses the mind of serving for a sewer, .'ation, of which the Ind of foulness and s in pestilent heaps tone, with little or I scarce in Palestine is, hence, universal, izzas, or offices. As ;ers the shops except t, like miniatures of ly-arches among us. escribes Jopim as uot untu- I] JOrPA AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD. Still on, till we pass under an arch over which is built the chief mosque of the town, with a six-sided minaret on the right side of it sdrmounted by a narrow projecting balcony for the muezzin, when he calls the faithful to prayers; a verandah-like roof sheltering him on all sides, with a short, round, dome-topped to;;'er, of smaller diameter than the rest of the minaret, rising as its crown above. Stalls of all kinds abound. Tables of cakes or sweetmeats line the narrow street, which is more or less shaded by rude awnings of mats — often sorely dilapidated — or breiidths of tent-cloth, or loose boards, resting on a rickety sub- structure of poles stuck where the owner pleases. The emptyings of carts of stone would make as good a pave- ment, and the same rich aroma of sewage from the houses as we have already inhaled follows us all the way. A tur- baned water-carrier with a huge skin bottle on his ba(;k — a defunct calf, in fact, filled with water instead of veal, and minus head, legs, and tail — forces us to turn to one side, to pass him. A bare-armed and bare-legged apparition in a ragged skull-cap, cotton jacket, and cotton knicker- bockers of very simple pattern, is chaffering with a road- side huckster for some delicacy costing a farthing or two, from some of the mat baskets on a table ; the bearded vendor, bare-armed and with bare legs, sitting, as he trios to sell, his head swollen out with a white-and-red turban, and his body in striped pink-and-white cotton. Of course there is a lounger at his side looking on. An Arab in his "kefiyeh," or head-shawl, with a band of camels'-hair rope, very soft, round his head, to keep the flowing gear in its ])lace, and a brown-and-white striped " abba " for his outer dress, is trying to cheapen a bridle at a saddler's, who sits cross-legged on a counter running along tlu; street, under a shaky projection of wood and reeds, which gives him much-needed shade. At last we emerge into freer air. THE HOLY LAND AND THE BIBLE. [Chap. Thfve is no lon^^'er the pretence of stone under-foot, but, rather, mud beaten hard by tralhc, so lonj,^ as rain does not soften it into a quagmire. Had we gone up the face of the hill, many of the streets would have required us to mount bv long flights of stei)s, while the road along the top of th^e hill to the south is simply a bed of deep, dry sand. Outsule the town on the north, however, after pass- ing through the open space where markets are held on flxed days, a pleasant lane, reminding one of Devonshire by its hedge of brambles, with nettles and grass below, leads to the^muhst quarters where I was to stay. Intervals of priclcly pear, a huge ungainly cactus, bristling with sharp spines, constantly brought one back from the West to the East, and the landscape from my window did so no less. From the sea, Joppa appears to be hemmed in with barren sand-hills, but, on nearer approach, a fringe of green borders it both north and south. These are the famous orange-groves, from which literally millions of the golden fruit'^are gathered in a good year. They stretch inland about a mile and a half, and extend north mid south over a length of two miles. :My room looked out on a sea of orangeries, glowing with countless golden globes, which formed a charming contrast to the rich green leaves. Other orchards of pomegranates, lemons, almonds, peaches, apri- cots, bananas, and citrons, are num.erous ; for beneath the sand blown in from the sea the soil is rich and fertile. It is no wonder that Joppa has always been a famous summer retreat from Jerusalem. The shady paradise of its groves, and the cool sea-breeze, are a great attraction. Sea-bathing would be another charm for Europeans, but Orientals have curious notions about cleanliness. Henoo no use is made of the shore for bathing. Asses and camels, laden with boxes of oranges, pass continually to the port. Great heaps of the fruit lie ready for packing I.] Eacl licav fruit graf iustc seed) of V well a ve subti ward abov be hi fall c bosoi beloi then ward irrig; creali triva simp a Ion post carrii wood and j mill ; drawi jars, by tv the r^ jars BIBLE. [Chap. le under-foot, but, lonj^- as rain does ^ono lip the face mve required us to the road along the a bed of deep, dry lowever, after pass- ?ts are hehlon tixed " Devonshire hy its rass helow, leads to stay Intervals of (ristling with sharp »m the West to the low did so no less, imed in with barren a fringe of green lese are the famous I lions of the golden rhey stretch inland )rth and south over ked out on a sea of olden globes, which trreen leaves. Other aonds, peaches, apri- lus ; for beneath the is rich and fertile. ,vays been a famous le shady paradise of e a great attraction, for Europeans, but cleanliness. Henoo jathing. Asses and , pass continually to ie ready for packing 1.1 JOPPA AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD. Each tree has a number of stems, and every twig is heavily laden. AVhite blossoms alternate with yellow fruit on the same branch, llore in Joppa the orange is grafted on the stock of a lemon, the produce being oval instead of round, and incapable of propagation from seeds. The harvest is everywhere immense, the abundance of water being the secret of this fertility. Wherever ii well is sunk in the orchards, it is sure to tap a spring at a very moderate depth. It seems, in fact, as if a great subterranean stream runs continually from the hills to- wards the sea, under the whole of the lowlands, from above Joppa to Beersheba in the fiir south ; for water can be had everywhere if a well be dug. The rains which fall on the porous strata of the mountains, or on the soft bosom of the plains, filter downwards till stopped, not far below the surface, by a bed of hard limestone, which turns them off in a vast perennial stream, down its slope, to- wards the west. Every orchard has thus ample means of irrigation, efl'ected by countless clumsy water-wheels, the creaking of which never ceases. These ingenious con- trivances, though rudely enough put together, are at once simple and efficient. An ox, a mule, or an ass, yoked to a long pole, projecting from the side of a thick upright post and driven slowly round, turns this beam, which carries on its top a large horizontal wheel, with numerous wooden teeth, working into another wheel set up and down, and joined by a long wooden axle to a third, revolving, mill fashion, into and out of the well. This lets down and draws up in turn, as it goes round, a series of pottery jars, or wooden buckets, fastened to it at short intervals by two thick, endless ropes of palm-tibre or myrtle-twigs, the roughness of which keeps them from slipping. As the jars or buckets pass over the top of the wheel, full of 8 THE HOLT LAND AND THE BIBLE. [Chap. I] water, they empty themselves into a hir<;e troucrh, from which the life-Kivini,' stream runs into a little canal lead- in- it through the orchard. This is tapped every here and there on its way, and thus furnishes numberless brook- lets to moisten the roots of each tree ; so that all, m eftect, are planted " by the streams of waters." i Modifications of the water-wheel are naturally met with in different parts of Palestine and Syria. Thus, on the Orontes, huge wheels, varying in diameter from fifteen to ninety feet, are set up between strong walls at the edge of the river, so that in revolving, by the force of the current, the rim, armed with a series of wooden buckets, dips into the water and fills each in succession, carrymg the whole round with it till, as they begin to descend, after passing the top of the circle, the contents are discharged into a trough leading to a raised tank, from which little canals run off' through the neighbouring gardens. This it is said, was the machine by which water was raised from terrace to terrace of the " hanging gardens " ot Babylon, to a height, in all, of four hundred feet, though the contriver of these wonderful imitations of a wooded mountain was wise enough to conceal, behind great walls, the means by which he kept it green.'^ In many places, however, very simple wheels are sufficient, when the water is near the surface. Thus, at the Virgin's Tree, near Cairo and in many parts of the sea-plain of Palestine, a horizontal cog-wheel, fixed on an upright shaft, from which a long pole projects at one side, works directly into an upright wheel, hung with wooden buckets or earthen- ware jars, which, in turn, dip under the water, and duly empty their contents, as the wheel revolves, into a trough. A blindfolded ox at the outer end of the pole keeps the whole in motion as it paces round and round. » r i. 3 (Revised Version). ^ Diod. Sic, ii. 10. BIBLE. [Chap. 1] JOPPA AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD. 9 arp slope of which and red, shutting' the orangery near id, while a set of e special charac- series of massive ». All the houses, )ne, as I have said, that to enable the ■ything is arched. 1 the ground floor, les, strong enough If no earthquake one might think, this prodigality of iuo sea, with some thf sky above, as I a the deepest blue, t. Robinson saw such a oliath. It was sixty feet d to a rope imssing over 1 round with iiauds and is iu the same district— ii. 21). Joppa is a very busy place, and oflVrs in its one or two streets of shops — for there are very few in the hilly part of the town — a constantly changing picture of I'jastern life. These shops, as T have said, are simply arches, o])en by day, but closed at night, and standiiig in the sweetest inde- pendence of all ideas of rcgulaiMy of ])osition. At some parts the sides of the street an; comparatively near each other, but at one place they bend so far back as to leave a wide spac(! for an open-air market. Everywhere, howt'ver, it is the same under-lbot. By night you need a lantern, or at least a ])ilot bearing one belbre you, to guide you clear of the holes, pools, rivulets of sewage, mounds of rubbish, blocks of stone, and varying uncleanness. Like all other Eastern towns, it is hardly lighted at all : the very few oil lamps hung up at distant intervals by private individuals before their houses serving im really useful purpose. The windows oi an Eastern house, as a rule, look into the court at the back, so that none are seen from the street, except when there is a second storey. Hut even I in this case little light is gained, as such windows are small, and darkened by lattices. This open woodwork is, indeed, ;i feature in all Oriental towns. It was through such a lattice that the an.xious mother of Sisera looked when her fondly-expected son had been defeated by Deborah and murdered by Jael,^ and through just such a casement did Itlie thoughtful watcher look out in Solomon's time, to note Itlie doinjjs in the street below.^ Little use, however, is made after dark of such latticed Icliiunbers, except for sleeping, and thus the streets are liiot brightened by any light from them, while to add to Itlie terrors of the outer darkness, the town dogs, which [own no master, prowl round, noisy and fierce : a hateful yellow race, with long heads, almost like those of hounds. ' Judg. V. 28. » Prov. viL 6. r 12 THE HOLY LAND AND THE HIBLE. [Cii.vP. 'IMirouf^h the day, in the words of tlio \)vo\^\oi wliicli vividly doscriln' tlicin, " tlicy tiro all diiinb, they do not bark;* drcamini,', lyiiiL,' down, loviii;^' to slunibor;"' bnt allcr snnsct tiu-y arc astir, swarnnn<; throus,'h the streets and distnrbint,' tbo ni^'ht by tlioir howlin-? and uproar, as thoy roam about to eat up the foul ollal and waste of the households, which in all Hastern towns is thrown into the public roadway ; these canine scaven^'ers thus saving' the connnunity from untold horrors of disease. It was in reference to this that our Lord, spoke when lie said. " Give not that which is holy " (" clean," in the Jewish sense) " to the dojrs." '^ One needs a good stick to defend hims(df if he be abroad after dark. " l)o<,'s have compassed me," says the Psalmist: "deliver my darlin- from the power of the dog ! " '' " At evening," says an- other psalm, "let them return, let them nuike a noise like a dog, and go round about the city. They shall wander up and down for meat." ^ Sometimes, indeed, tho dogs raise a dreadful barking if a stranger in unusual dress approach the village or appear in the streets, so that it was a pleasant assurance which Moses gave the Israelites, that when they set out from Egypt "not a dog should move his tongue against man or beast ; " ^ and Judith calmed the fears of Holofernes by telling him she would lead him so safely that he would run no risk of discovery through these pests," But dogs are not the only dangers of the streets. Any person lound in them after nine o'clock without a light is » Isa. Ivi. 10. » Matt. vii. 6. " Throw " would bo bettor than " Give. » P«. xxii. 16-20. 4 P.s. lix. U, 15. This text- may alhule to the jackivls which prowl roniiil cities and vilhiges in open parts. ' Ex. xi. 7. « Judith xi. 19. Ill an g; gossip Orienl i.irang( ' Ca ' Tl (Prov. \ ^ Jo IDLE. [Chap. JOPl'A AND ITS NEKUinoTIRHOOD. 13 proplict whicli ml), tlit>y (It) not slumluT ; " ' but iig thr«)vii;h tilt' loir h()\vlin;.j iitnl he foul otlal iunl Hiistern towns is ciiniiie sciiv('n^'(>rs horrors of disease. I. spoke when lie (" cleiin," in the '(Is a good stick to irk. " Dogs have leliver my darlint,' evening," says an- em make a noise city. They shall c'timcs, indeed, the ranger in unusual the streets, so that yrave the Israelites, not a dog sliould st;"^ and Judith iiir him she would o risk of discovery if the streets. Any ; without a light is " Give." iK'kivls which prowl rouiiJ ill dajiger of licing arrested hy a town watchman, on whom (»iie comes with a sudden start, the sound of feet making liim stir in the darkness, where, perhaps, he has heen asleep on the ground, 'i'his law was doubtless in f«)rce at the time when i)oor Sulamith, the hride in the Cautieles, hastening after her h('l«)ved in the night, was seized hy the watchmen, rudely beaten, and robbed of her mantle.' The bazaar street of .lojipa is, as I have said, compara- tively broad even in the narrowest parts, but it is very (liU'erent in the "clefts"- that do duty for streets in some (ither ])arts of the town. In these, the small windows iihove almost touch each other, and it is a dillicult nuitter to pass any laden ass or camel j)lodding on below. But let us wander on through the chief business street. At the mouth of one small arched shop a number of gold- linches in cages are hung up for sale, as others, no doubt, have been, over the land, for thousands of years back, for the maidens in Job's time toyed with birds kept in captivity.^ The next arch is a carj)enter's shoj) ; the next a smithy. A string of camels, with firewood, passes : mangy-looking brutes, never cleaned, and suffering badly from itch in consequence. The hair is off them in great patches, poor creatures! Arabs, with striped "abbas," or cloaks, and " kefiyehs," or shawls, over their heads and shoulders, two rounds of a camels'-hair rope keeping them in their place, sit in the shade, smoking nargilehs, or water-pipes, in sublime indifl'erence to everything but the gossip of the moment. Dreamy idleness is dear to the Oriental, lie will sit in the same way in the shade of the orangeries, with fellow-idlers, through whole afternoons. ' Cant. V. 7. ^ This 18 the iiicniiinp of shiilc, thi> word in Hebrew for a narrow street (Prov. vii. 8; Eoules. xii. i, 5). ^ Job xli. 5. 14 THE HOIiY LAND AND TTIF, lUHLR (Ciivr. M and tliink it IMnuUsc IimI.mmI. tl.is idling Hccms the j/ivati'st .'iijoymt'tit of the Joppa Imr^'lu-rs. H.-aps ot (•.)rnin(m ])ainl('(l pottery in tlu« street invite.l i,ureliiis(-rs a few steps further on. and near then, heaps of frrain, in urehed stores. A man sjit on the ^m.nnd hard at w..rk\,'rindin.^'h'ntils into Hour; tnrnin:^' the upper stone (,f tlie litth' mill wearily with one han.l, as he held the un.ler one with the other. I was i,'lad to see, for (mee. ii man rather than a woman at such work. Lar-e numhers of cocks, hens, and chick.M.s, tied by the le^s, lay in the street awaiting' purchasers. Kgt^'s wore lor sale in ^,'reat abundance. Men \u turbans, tarbooshes. " ketiyebs," and striped " abbas," brown-and-white, sat on all sides. er..ss- ' .^^r,.,l. (,n the f,'round. in the open air. beside },'oods they oir."-ed' for sale. An unveiled w«.man. of co\irsc a Christian, passed; a silver rinjr on one of her finj^'ers, a wristlet of the same metal on her arm. and tattooed marks on her face. The practice of printing; indelible marks on the face and body has been common in the East from the earliest aj^ns. "Ye shall not print any marks on you," says Leviticus ;i tbouirb there seems to be a limit of this prohibition m Exodus, where we apparently read of tbe deliverance from K.rypt being kept in memory by signs upon the band, and a memorial between tbe eyes; that is, on the iorehead- Tu Isaiab we also read of men subscribing with their band, or as many translate it, " writing upon tlieir bund," some proof of tlieir loyalty to Jehovah. It would seem, there- tbro, as if tbe heathen signs tattooed by many ancient nations, as by some modern ones, on their faces or persons, were condemned, while others which recognised the God of Israel were permitted. Moreover, we read of the seal ot ' Eloa^xiir 9 Tl.c word " si^n " is that used for the " mark " on Cain, an.l f..r lh« bU.od on tho houses of the Hebrews before the death of the hrst- boru of the EgjTt'»"8. '^.^ i] i iiM'ji»a i( w i ii'i i W)» i TiE. [riiAP. M .TOPPA AND ITS NFIKIII HOl'UKOOI). li iii>r Hccms till' c street invited 1 tliciii lieaps ot" ^fS;ij-,(r.J.S*Ji^-Vi-**-I^ ----^tfi-i BIBLE. Chap. 1.1 JOPPA AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD. rith the domes of il M-u-cibees in the seccmd century before Christ. n-iUc xvuyof as.ertin,> it^clt, "The men o Jop , theywtrt^oi .|,,,™"3 guch an atrocity drew than two hundred ot tUtm. "^uc .< c-dl- ,ng on tnc - ^ ^^^^t the haven by night, «1pw " * It was Jonathan, the youngest ot the Macca slew. A^ "^^-^ , I 1 f l^jj. l,vother b^ean brethren, however, who. with the help oi Simon, first actually gained the town for t^e jlevv^ 117 Pompev eighty -four years later, addtcl 3fa:t:vlaUyde.troyed. «iace then .ts fortunes ■ ■-^gB)ip^y^j[^^- i==i^p .^::^lc|i!nB^^ ■:--^ei'. . . 'J •",■ 1^^'^^'■i": 84 THE HOLY LAND AND THE BIBLE. [Ciup. 1. have been various : now Uoman, next Saracen, next under the Crusailors, then under the Mamelukes, and next under the Turks, to whom it still, to its misfortune, belongs. The population at this time is given hy some authorities at 15,000,^ by others at only «,U00,2 of whom 500 are Europeans and 3,000 Jews. On the south-east of the town a settlement of the Uni- versal Israelitish Alliance has been able to obtain a tract of 780 acres, one-third of which, before unreclaimed, they have turned into fruitful fields and gardens. Their vine- yards and those of others skirt the orchards on the south ; the vines trailing low over the sand, but yielding large and delicious ^'rapes. On the north there are large gardens owned by the Franciscans, and bordering these, also, are vineyards owned by a German colony. A settlement of Egyptians, brought there fifty years ago by Ibrahim Pasha, live in gi'eat wretchedness in low mud cabins along the shore to the north : a herd of poor creatures stranded here, when the tide of war that had swept them from their native land finally ebbed. But war has a still more vivid memento to show, close to the town, for a spot is still pointed out on the sand-hills to the south-east where Napoleon I. caused between two and three thousand Turkish soldiers to be shot down in cold blood, to save him the trouble of taking them with him to Egypt. • Bichm, Handworterbuch and Calwer Bihel Lex. * Palestine Fund Memoirs, ii. 256; Pict. Palestine, ii. 138. * m BIBLE. [Chap. I. t Saracen, next under lukes, and next under misfortune, belongs, n by some autborities ),* of wbom 500 are lettlement of tbe Uni- ble to obtain a tract ore unreclaimed, they [i^ardens. Their vine- rchards on tbe south ; d, but yielding large here are large gardens dering these, also, are ny. A settlement of igo by Ibrahim Pasha, mud cabins along the eatures stranded here, ept them from their has a still more vivid vn, for a spot is still the south-east where and three thousand in cold blood, to save I him to Egypt. Bihel Lex, ct. Palestine, ii. 138, CHAPTER II. LYDDAII-IIAMLEII. If you like au "omnibus." with its load of f spongers you can drive eacb day irom Joppa to Jerusalem, but I prefer going on horseback. One can stop when he likes. and can escape the din of a light-hearted set of tounsts " doing " the country in a very mechanical way. The road to Lydda, now called Ludd, leaves Joppa at the north-east corner of the town and runs south-east, along a broad, sandy road, through gardens fenced with prickly pear, which extenc^ nearly two miles back from the sea On the left, half a mile out, in one of tbe gardens, is a good-sized pool, a pleasant sight in this thirsty land, and a little farther on, at a fork of the road, stands a noble fountain, called after a governor of Joppa who died about the beginning of this century, and left this fine memorial of his kindly nature. It is built of white stone, with an arched recess in the middle, beforo which, on a line with the walls, is a wide trough, at which some poor donkeys, heavily laden as usual, were slaking their thirst A wall a little broader than the recess extends on each side of this, with a rounded shaft at each corner, sur- mounted by a sugar-loafed dome, the sides runmng back 80 as to form a parallelogram. In each end is a blank arch, for ornament ; and in the front, on each side of the archway, about eight feet up, two long, narrow, arched window-spaces. A number of sugar-loaf domes above 86 THE lloliV LAND ANU THE HIULE. [cii.\r complete the orniimi'iits of the stnieture, which is the linost of its kind in Pah'stine. The walls are ahout twenty feet hi^'h; tlie centre eupohi perh;'.;;:: twelve feet hi«,'her. Inside lies the ^'enerons I'ountk'r ; lor the buildin.'X is at once a fountain and a tomb. No ])i.l)lie ^'ift is more appreciated in the Kast tlnm a fountain, erected in the belief that kindness shown by us in this w<»rld will not be iorufotten in the .:''xt, and hence there is not a town of any si/e which does not boast of at least one. One at Jo|)pa, which I had forj,'otten to m(>ntion, stands near the old site of the city t,Mte: ei^'ht pointed arches, rest- ing on columns rising on a jiaved s(piare, amidst a thoron^'hly Oriental surrounding' of sipialid stalls and dark cells, miscalled shops ; .some plane-trees ^'n)winj.,' beside it. At the roadside, in dill'erent parts, one often comes on a low ])lasterel cube with an opening' "in front, and water within, placed there, each day, by women returnini^ from the well, that ])assers-by may be refreshed by it. The water supply of Palestine, except in favoured districts, has in all ages been limited, and of com-sc there has never been any such provision as there is with us for bringin«^ it to each house. Hence, as in Jerusalem at this time, at least one cistern is formed under each dwelling, to collect the rain-water from the roof. A well in the inner court of a house was in ancient times, as it is still, a mark of wealth,^ though it might be only a gathering of rain-water — not a spring. Mesa, of Moab, in the famous stone on which he caused his memorial of vic- tory to be engraved, tells us that he had ordered every housebolder in Korcha Dibon to make a cistern in his own dwelling ; and this custom, thus followed in all ages with private houses, has also been that of the whole open country. The ground everywhere is, as it were, honey- » 2 Sam. xvii. 18 ; Jor. xxxviii. 6 j Im. xsxvi. IG ; Prov. v. 15. niR HIULEJ. [ClIAI'. II. I LYDUAH -IIAMI.EH inu'tiuv, wl'.icli is the walls arc about tw<'iity j;;; twelve U't't liif^licr. for the buildin!,' is at ^) ])iil)lic ^it't is more iiiiitain, erected iu the this world will not be here is not a town of at least one. One at 1 mention, stands near it pointed arches, rest- veil sipiaro, amidst a squalid stalls and dark e-trees ^rowinj^ beside larts one often comes ojK'nin<^ in front, and ly, by women returning ly be ri'lreshed by it. pt in favoured districts, [1 of course there has i there is with us for as in Jerusalem at this d under each dwelling, D roof. A well in the int times, as it is still, it bo only a gathering esa, of Moab, iu the 1 his memorial of vic- t he had ordered every ake a cistern in his own illowcd in all ages with lat of the whole open I is, as it were, honey- xsxvi. IG J Prov. v. 15. combed witV ancient .'isterns. many, no d<.ubt. dating In.m the time of the ..Id C'anaanites, beiore Moses, lor their w.-lls «.r eist..nis,' are spoken of by him, and in a later day by the Levites. at H/ra's great fast.^ These reserv.Mrs must scnnetimes have been of great si/e. for in the well or .Mstern made bv King Asa at Mi/.peh there was room lor seventy corpses) Even in the very region through which we are , passing-the fringe of low hills and the n.Uing plain o Sharon, stretching from Joppa, north-King lJ//..ah had to expend mneli labour in s.-euring sulVicieiit water tor his numerous llocks. We read that "he built towers ,n the pasture country [for his sheph.>rds ami llocksl a.id hewed out numy cisterns ; for ho had much cattle, both lu the Shephelah [the low hills sloping to the plains! and in the Mishor" [the smooth grassy pasture-land tree from rocks and stones], ^ Their shape is often that ..t huge bottles, narn.wed at tlu, neck to keep the water cool, btones were generally laid round the mouth, which itself was covered with a great stone, requiring no little strength to push or roll aside. Thus several men were re(iuired to move the one which covered the cistern belonging to Laban. In some places, as we shall see, these cisterns are cai-t-tul y hewn out of the rock, but they are sometimes wal ed with blocks of stones, and in all cases they are coated with water- proof cement. Springs rise to the surface on y m a few localities in Palestine; indeed, in the south there may be said to be none. In Jerusalem there is but one, although there are at least four wells of living water, more or less sewa-e-poisoned. Bethlehem, even in Jerome's day, was niaiidy dependent on cisterns," and the two fortresses, Jotapata and Masada, had only rain-cisterns. The fountain of Abu NabiU, which has led to this . Dent vi 11. ^ N.'l.. i- 25. » Jer. xli. 9. ^ 2 Cl.ron. xxvi. 10. " Geu. xxix. 3. « Hiei-oii. ou Amos, iv. 7. ' Job. Ant., xiv. U, 0. TIIE HOLT LAND AND THE BinLE. (Oii&r, (li^'rcHHion, is known by tlio luinio of the Tomb of Tabitba or Dorcas, but tht-ro is no vvci^'lit in tbo tnidition wbioh thus distinpuishoH it. (Moso to it, nmon},' tho orchards Ktretchinjj ti) tiic north, M. (Mcrinont (lanncau was fortu nate cnou^'h to discover, in 1^71, the -incicut cemetery of .]opi)a, containing' many rock-hewn tond)s, all lon^( since enjpty. Lamps and vases of terra-cotta, and stones with inscriptionh, are constantly found in its limits by the peasantry, to whom the lar^'cr blocks are with scarlet anemones, intermixed with clouds of - ranunculus, saffron, and other wild Howers, tall reeds of long grass fringing every moist hollow. Its name, Ram- leh — "the Sandy " — irdica^es the character of the soil on which it stands; but though sandy, it is fertile. To the south indeed, towards Ekron, the sand is deep, and nii kos cultivation difficult, but even there olive-yards and gardens flourish, thanks to irrigation from the numerous wells. Both Ramleh and Lydda are embayed among the low hills of the Shephehih on all sides but the north ; Kamleh stand- ing on the east side of a broad, low swell. Though the larger place of the two, it has no such charm of antiquity as its neighbour, since it was founded only in the eighth ' century, when Lydda had been temporarily destroyed. Many large vaulted cisterns and other remains, on all sides except the south, where the hills are close, show that it must once have been much larger than it is ; but it could never have supported a very large community, the only water supply being derived from wells and tanks for rain. Some of these, of great size, but now useless, still show their age by inscriptions on them in Cufic, or early Arabic. Two ruins in the town are its chief attrac- tion: an ancient Crusading church, long ago turned into a Moslem sanctuary, and a lofty tower known as the White Mosque, to the west of the houses. The former, still in comparatively good repair, with whr *; was appa- rently its original roof, is no less than 150 feet long and 75 feet broad, almost the same size as the Church of St. THE HOLT LAND AND THE BIBLE. [CHAP, M George .t Lydda ; but the whole interior to been white- «l!d, so fat the fine earvin,- of the p.llarY» ■" grea ;:; eoncealed. That two eha.che» «f -^J' »- ™ Llondour should have been built by the Crusaaer. so ne.r , veh other is a triumph of Western energy at onee em- rilietd eloquent, 'what n>en they ™ust have Wen vho raised then, in such a land, and such an age, far lion the aids ot civilisation ! The one at llamleh ., perhaps the llnest and best-preserved memorial of Crusadmg areh.tec- ture in ralcstine. ., ,c,. In a large enclosure, about 3(10 feet one way and .S(t the other, stands the White Tower, twenty-s,x feet square at its base and 120 feet high, a marvel ot beaut.lul masonry.' It is said to be the minaret ot a great mosque, Tow destroyed; but it looks much more like the g,gan.c souaK. tower of a ruined church. Yet we have the :» :% p nion of the officers of the Palestine Survey S the details show the whole edifice to have b«.r built by Arab workmen, from the des.gns ot a hurc peln a,^hitect. It seems to date from about the year rriSOO. In the enclosure, south ot the tower are four huge vaults, lighted from above, all dry and perfec ; >e wo largest eigta teet from north to south and a httle less from a tto west; the other two not much smaller. One of H,e four is full ot stones, the memorials of pdgr.ms who eae add one to the huge mass. The va.Jts are all about tv nty-five feet deep ; their roofs being supported by rows ot s"one columns. Along the east and south ot the en- closure are remains of an arcade or colonnade; and traces ot chambers, for the officials of the mosque, are visible on the west Sid;. The past history of the spot .s, however, unkrown. Tall slender buttresses rise at the tour corners to more thao half the height of the tower, wh.ch narrows in size above them in its two succeeding storeys ; a stair- 4p- J i3 BIBLE. [Chap. rior lias been white- le pillars is in great s of such size and lie Crusaviers so near energy at once em- ley must have been ;uch an age, far from ,amleh is perhaps the ' Crusading architec- eet one way and 2 SO wenty-six feet square marvel of beautiful et of a great mosque, Qore like the gigantic Yet we have the the Palestine Survey edifice to have been ) designs of a Euro- from about the year of the tower, are four ry and perfect, the two ;outh and a little less at much smaller. One norials of pilgrims who he vauJts are all about eing supported by rows ; and south of the en- ■ colonnade ; and traces ) mosque, are visible on )f the spot is, however, rise at the four corners e tower, which narrows eeding storeys ; a stair- LTDDAH— RAMLEH. m case of 1^() steps winding inside the otherwise solid masonry to the gallery at the top. The huge mass has doubtless often been roughly shaken by earthquakes, but it stands unrent as yet. A succession of windows of various shapes, but all with pointed arciies, relieves the four sides, and opens magnificent views in every direction as you ascend. At one time a round tower and balcony for a muez/.in disfigured the sumiuit, but they have now disappeared. Standing on ground 3-52 feet above the sea, and rising UO feet higher, the gallery enables one to look out from a height of nearly 500 feet on the panorama around. Turning to the north, the eye wanders over the cemetery of Ramleh, with its plaster headstones and lowly mounds, scattered without order, and too often in decay— the orchards and cactus-hedges beyond, and then the town of Lydda, with its flat roofs in varied outline, and the high campanile-like minaret, with the ruined aisle of St. George's Church, close by a broad pool. On the further side, edged to the north with reeds and trees, there stretches out the whole length of the plain of Sharon, as far as Carmel, and, from west to east, its whole breadth, from the sea-shore sand-hills to the mountains of Jadaja and Samaria. The landscape thus displayed includes by far the largest sweep of open country in Palestine, reaching from the clifls of Carmel to the wells of Beersheba. Rolling uplands diversify the surface throughout; great breadths of waving pasture or arable land stretching between the low heights which break and beautify the whole. Perennial streams cleave their way to the sea ; villages, always picturesque, however wretched, rise on the slopes ; in some places there is still a sprinkling of oak ; everywhere there are ruins. The red or black tilth, the green or yellow grain, the light- brown uplands, the tawny fringe of sand along th > shore, D 2 86 THE HOLY LAND AND THE BIBLE. IChaf. the blue sea. the purple mountains to the east, all seen throu-h the transparent air, make up a scene never to be ^'''^Such 'a view as this explains why the Jews could not permanently gain possession of these rich lowlands, but had to content themselves with the comparatively barren hills The nations of ancient Palestine were strong m iron 'chariots; the Jews were infantry soldiers, without horses till the days of Solomon. Jabin. the Canaanite po- tentate in the north of the land, boasted of 900 chariotsi in the early days of the Judges, and centuries later the Kin- of Damascus explained a defeat by saying that the Hebrew gods ".ve gods of the mountains, and therefore they are stronger than we; but let us fight against them in the plains, and surely we shall be stronger than thev"2 Roads fit for wheels are even yet unknown in the old Jewish territory. You can only travel at the rate of your horse's walk over the stoay tracks through the hills, everywhere in a state of nature. I* ^^s on a Roman highwav that the Ethiopian eunuch travelled to Gaza and though there were chariots of the sun in Jeru- salem in the times of the Hebrew kings, they were only used for local religious pageants close to the city b )mon. indeed, had 1.400 chariots, but they were, doubtless, more ^or show than use, except on the short stretches of road he is said to have made to soiuc distance from the capital. There was, in fact, no plain on which they could be freely used, either for war or for travelling, except Esdraelon. where we find Jehu and Ahab driving in theirs. An Egyptian papyrus, dating from the fourteenth century before Christ, that is. from about the time of Joshua, gives an account of the journey of an officer of the Pl;.raoh- a"Mohar"-sent in his chariot through Palestine upon I Juug. iv. 3. » 1 Kings XX. 25. " 1 Kings xviii. 44 ; 2 Kings ix. 16. E BIBLE. [Chap. the east, all seen a scene never to be the Jews could not 5 rich lowlands, but iomparatively barren tine were strong in ;ry soldiers, without in, the Canaanite po- rted of 900 chariots 1 i centuries later the it by saying that the ntains, and therefore let us fight against lall be stronger than even yet unknown an only travel at the stoxiy tracks through nature. It was on a 1 eunuch travelled to s of the sun in Jeru- kings, they were only ! to the city. S )nion, were, doubtless, more rt stretches of road he mce from the capital, h they could be freely ing, except Esdraelon, iving in theirs.'^ An le fourteenth century 3 time of Joshua, gives icer of the Pharaoh— hrough Palestine upon gs xviii. 44 ; 2 Kings ix. 16. n.] LYDDAH— RAMLE H. 87 official business. As long as he kept to the plains, he tells us, he could move freely, but \.lien he ascended to the hills, the tracks were rocky and overgrown Avith prickly pear, trees, and bushes; and disaster followed disaster. His " limbs were knocked up, his bones broken, his strength gone, so that for very weariness he fell asleep." He had to cross streams by difficult fords ; to descend ravines " two thousand cubits deep," full of rocks and rolling stones, with no apparent passage ; on one side a precipice, on the other the mountain. His chariot-pole was broken, his chariot injured ; his horses refused to go, and at last his chariot was broken to pieces, and could only be repaired by getting the services of different " workmen in wood, and metals! and leather." ^ Such as the roads were then they still continue, and they must have been the same, in the hills, during Bible times, for the fact of Solomon having made travelling easy, by better roads, in the vicinity of Jerusalem, would not have been mentioned had intercom- munication generally been even passably good.^ To face the iron chariots of the plains was impossible for the Hebrew militia. "The Lord was with Judah; and he drave out the inhabitants of the mountain ; but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley [or plain] because they had chariots of iron."^ In his mountain campaign at Ai and Gibeon, Joshua had only footmen to resist. On the plains of Merom, in the north, horses and chariots, " very many," appeared for the first time on the scene. A sudden surprise, like that of Deborah when she fell upon Sisera, neutralised this advantage of the enemy, but it was ordered that the horses should be houghed and the chariots burned, » Records of the Past, ii. 109—116. 2 Jos. Ant., viii. 7, 4. The roads of Josephus seem to hare beon made of basalt, the contrast of wliich with the white hills would be striking. » Judg. i. 19 ; Josh. xvii. 16. 38 THE HOLY LAND AND THE BIBLE. ICiiap. H. to provcnt, in futuro, l.o peril of such a force as had thus boon so woudorfully overcome. Kor was there any desire for such innovations, for horses and chariots vere as use- less in the simple life of the mountains as they would be to-day • no wheeled vehicle ever hein^r mot with in the bills, and horses only as they pass with stray travellers from town to town, or, in numbers, from the Damascus borse-market to that of K^ypt, the caravan road between which two points, by the way, passes through ilaiuleh. : BIBLE. [fiiAi-. ir. ii force as had thus vas there any desire ihariots verc as use- ins as they would be 111- met with in the vith stray travellers from the Damascus iivavan road between through ilanileh. CHAPTER IH. THE PLAIN OF SHARON. A MODF.nN paved road, in very bad repair, leads throu-h Ramleh. frou. Joppa to Jerusalem, but the ancient road between these cities runs throuj^h Lydda ; only a broad track, however, without traces of antiquities, bein^^ v,sd, e as vou cross the plain. From Lydda, north, runs an old Roman road throu-h the heart of the country ; a sule track branchint,^ off to Ca-sarea. Alon- tins, as has already been said,' St. Paul probably travelled, when led to the presence of Felix, the procurator, or governoi% of Judiea. Following this course, a short ride brought me through Lydda, which you leave by a Saracenic bridge over a wady. or water-course. dry except after heavy riins The ground was firm, not like the deep sand through which one has to pass outside Joppa Sharor spread in soft undulations far and near, with the low hills of the Shephelah on the left, at a short distance; fertile stretches of barley and wheat now. m spring, cast- in. a shimmer of green over the landscape, and alternating with breadths of what, in Engiand. would be called pas- turage. Red and yellow flowers-anemones, tulips, and the xiarc^sus, among other blossoms-aboundecL The j 03^ peasant maiden could say to-day, as of oh3, I a.n the Le of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys. What fiower were meant in this verse it is not easy to tel . The Rose of Sharon is thought by Sir George Grove. I know not why. 1 Se-? ante, p. 32. =* Caiit. ii. 1. 40 THE HOLY LAND AND THE BIBLE, [Chap. to liave boon tlio " tall and gracoful squill," ' wliilo otiiors havo advocated tlio claims of tho cistus, or rock roso, but tins is found ratlwr in tho bills tban on tbo ])lains. Tho rose, indood, is not nuMitionod till tbo date of tho Ajjoc- ryphal books, having,' boon brou^Mit from I'orsia lato in .lowish history.- Tristram and Ilou^diton'' think it was tho narcissus, a bulb of which Orientals aro passionately fond.' While it is in tlowor it is sold evorywhoro in tho streets, and may be seen in tho hands of very many, both mon and women, who carry it about to enjoy its perfume. Dr. Thomson thinks a beautiful variety of tho marsh mallow, which grows into a stout bush and boars thousands of beautiful llowors, is tho " lily " of Scripture. It certainly is found often ainon<; thorns, and abounds on Sharon, so that it would, at least in this, suit the comparison that follows the mention of the Rose of Sharon — " As tlu^ lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters.'"* But it hardly meets the conditions implied in other to.xts, for it is compared with the lips of the Beloved, and therefore, it is to be presumed, was red.^ It grew quickly, and from the locality in which our Lord contrasted its " glory" with that of Solomon, it should be found abundantly in (ialilee. The species mentioned by Dr. Thomson, however, thougli very beautiful, is dark purple and white in its flower, nor, indeed, is it a lily at all, but an iris. There are, in fact, few true lilies in Palestine, nor is it necessary to suppose that a true lily was intended, for the name Shusan — translated " lily" in Scripture— is used to this day of any bright-coloured Hower at all like the lily: such, for ex- ample, as the tulip, anemone, or ranunculus. Dr. Tristram, therefore, fixes on the scarlet anemone, which colours tho 1 Did. of Bible : art. " Sharon." ' Ecchis. xxiv. 14 ; xxxix. 13 ; 1. 8. 3 Did. ofliible : art. "Rose." * Nat Hist, of Bible, p. 476. » Cant. ii. 2. • Cant. V. 13 j Hob. xiv. 5. BIBLE. [Chap. uill," ' wliilo (>tlu«rs 118, or rock rose, but )n tlio ])lains. Tlio (late of the Ajjoc- froiu I'lTsia late in on'' tliiiik it was the ' passionately fond.' vherc in the streets, ■ry many, both men )y its perfume. Dr. f the marsh mallow, bears tln)nsun(ls of pture. It certainly unds on Sharon, so the comparison that laron — " As the lily e daughters."' But I in other texts, for loved, and therefore, (w quickly, and from ted its "glory" with bundantly in Galilee. 3n, however, though ite in its flower, nor, There are, in fact, necessary to suppose the name Shusan — d to this day of any J lily: such, for ex- culus. Dr. Tristram, e, which colours the .t. Hist, of Bibk, p. 476. lit. ii. 2. ut. V. 13 ; Ho8. xiv. 5. ,„ , THE PLAIN OF SHARON. « ground all over Palestine in spring, as th.. Mower intend,'.!, especially as the name Shusan is applied to it among .ithers.i Captain Conder thinks the blue iris is meant, while the large yellow water-lilv of the lluleh is men- tioned b^ Dean Stanley, oidy to be set aside." Hut what- ever the case with the lily, there seems no Ukebhoi.d of agreement as to the " Rose of Sharon." The Hebrew word translated " rose " comes from two roots, meaning " sour " and " bulb," and is used also, in the ancient Synac version, for an autumnal llower springing from a poisonous bulb, and of a white and violet colour; perhaps the nu-adow sa(lron.3 On the other hand, the old Jewish commen- taries translate the word by "the narcissus," which is not only of the lily tribe, but very common, us we have seen, in spring, on the plaiji of Sharon. Roses are not found in Palestine, though they Hourish on the cool heights of Hermon, 6,()()(> feet ab.ne the sea. It is not without weight, moreover, that the word used for "rose" in Scripture is still used by the peasantry, with slight varia- tion, for the narcissus.* As we rode on, many peasants were ploughing, with the plough in one hand, and in the other a long wooden goad, the sharp iron point of which was used to urge forward the lean, small oxen. It was no use for them to kick against it ;' their only safety was to hurry on. The plough used was so light that it could be carried on the shoulder : indeed, asses passed carrying two plouad tails, aiul thus si'.'in.«d to be the same breed as that ivareu by the aiieieiit .I.-ws. lor vv.. read that the tail of their variety was burii.'.l by the priests on the altar, in thauk-onerin-s. "The whole rump [..r tail] shall be taken olF. hard by the backbone, and tli<> priest shall burn it upcm the altar." ^ On the roofs of many of the mud houses f,'rass had spruii- up plentifully, thanks to the winter rain, but in the iiicreas- inir heat it was doomed to " wither before it fjrew up. On every side the landscape was deli^'htful. " The winter was past, the rain over and gone ; the ilowers were appear- in- on the earth ; the time of the sin-in- of birds had come, and the voice of the turtle w/s heard in the !and ; the fig-tree was putting forth her green figs, and the vines, now in bl.»om, gave a good smell." ^ Not that song-birds were to be heard, except the lark ; there was not enougli woodland for tlu>m ; nor that the turtle was to be heard on the plain, or the fragrance of vineyards inhaled. Ihese were the attractions of rare and isolated spots, beside the villages, on the hill-slopes. The plaiu itself is silent, and shows very little life of any kind. Tibneh. perhaps the burial-place of Joshua, lies among the mountains north-east of Lydda. and as I could never be nearer to it. the heads of our horses had been turned in its direction. At three miles from Lydda we reached the hills, the village of Beit Nebala, probably the Neballat of Nehemiah/ lying at the foot of slopes surrounded by wide » Lev iii 9. 11. ^ Ps- «»«• 5; '-i Kiiips xix. 26 ; Isa. xxxvii. 27. » Caut. ii. 11-13. * Neb. xi. 34. E nini.E. (('ii»r. ,111, to hold the fl;it wliolc iinplfincut, nclu's(l('('i). Kiivtns IT. llcnis of sluM'p ut cat lit' wcn« nuc. I tlms si'cincd to 1m' 10 aiK'U'iit .lews, lor y was burncil by the •ino-s. " The vvliolo rd by tho backbone, ho altar." ^ On the rrass had sprung' up I, but in the increas- ] before it {jjrevv up."' rhtful. " The winter llowers were appear- ■;in<;iii<; of birds had •8 heard in the land; en tij;s, and the vines, Not that sonf,'-birds ;here was nut enough Lirtle was to be heard yards inbaled. These ated spots, beside the iu itself is silent, and of Joshua, lies amon^' , and as I could never SOS had been turned in Lydda we reached the ibably the Neballat of )es surrounded by wide rs xix. 26 ; Isa. xxxvii. 27. Nfh. xi. 34. „,, • TIIH IM..V1N' OF SIIAKON. . • stretches of olive-trees. The sea. thirteen miles due eant. was only :2r.<» feet below us. ho slowly d..es the land nso thus far. Small valleys, each a ,VaLor-course alt.r ranis, conver^red in all .lirections ts on which pyramids ure, mentioned in the I, and there are even uestion, is the spot on the glorious brother- 3 bodies of his father, III.] THE PliAIN OF SHARON. m motiier, and f.mr brothers, reserving a space in it for him- self-the seventh. A pyramid richly carved was raised for each of them, on an under-structure of squared polished stone ; other great obelisks, covered with carved emblems of the naval and military triumphs of the family, adorning the whole above.i Never heroes deserved more truly a grand memorial. Their story still thrills the heart, for ^ valour and genius must ever command the homage ot mankind. ^„ , i i. The olive-groves on the way to Tibneh must be favourite haunts of the turtle-dove, which comes with the spring 2 but had not reached Palestine when I was in this neighbourhood. Later on, they are found everywhere, and pour out their plaintive cooings in every garden, grove, and wooded hill, from sunrise to sunset ; the time of their arrival being so regular that the prophet could speak of it as known to everyone.^ The turtle-dove is niore numerous in the Holy Land than anywhere else, and thus, as well as the " dove," naturally became a source of bcrip- ture metaphor. It is mentioned more than fifty times lu the Bible. Alone among birds it could be otfered on the altar. Two turtle-doves, or two young pigeons, were eiyoined as the offering at the purification of the leper and they were accepted by the law. from the poor, as a burnt-offer- ing or sin-offering, in other cases. The Nazarite who had accidentally defiled himself was to be thus purified, and so also were women after the birth of a child^if they could not give anything more costly. The offering of the Virgin in the Temple, after the birth of our Lord, was 1 IMacc xiii 27-30. Gyierin, DeBcr.dela Palestine: 8amarie,u.b5-64, 4(.4-4rG The identification is questioned by tl.e P'^lfi-^urvey^rs who tlunktho monument is Chri tian, dating from the fourth or fa^th century. 2 Caut. ii. 11, 12. I £i.f 14 ; XV. 14, 29 ; xiv. 22 ; Koia. vi. 10. » Lev. v. 7 : xii. 8. I I -V % 46 THE HOLY LAND AND THE BIBLE. [Chap. on this ground mentioned by the Evangolis^ :-. a sign of her poverty.^ A turtle-dove and a young pigeon Avere among the offerings in the sacrifices of Abraham ;2 so early had these birds been accepted as a symbol of purity. "Turtle-dove" was, indeed, a term of endearment, as when David cries to God, " O deUver not the soul of thy turtle-dove unto the multitude of the wicked."^ Many of the passages, however, usually supposed to refer to the turtle-dove, are rather to be applied to doves or pigeons at larc^e. I have quoted all the texts specially naming it ; elsewhere " doves " includes the many varieties of pigeon found in Palestine, especially the common pigeons of the towns or villages, which, like all their kind, except the turtle-dove, never migrate. Every house, except perhaps the very poorest, has its pigeons. A detached dovecot of mud or brick, roofed over, with wulo-mouthed earthen pots ins=de, as nesting-boxes, is a special mark of wealtli; but even the humble peasant has one on a small scale, m his little yard, or even in his house, against the inner wall; the birds flying out and in through the house-door. It was natural, ■therefore, for our Lord, amidst such fami- liarity with birds so gaileless, to warn His apostles to be "harmless as doves."* Such an allusion vividly reminds us of one great characteristic of the Bible. It is not the production of cloistered ascetics, but breathr in every page a .pyous or meditative intercourse with nature and mankud. Ihe fields, the hills, the highway, the valleys, the varying details of country scenes and occupations, are inter^^persed 2 Gen XV V There are two words in the Okl Testament for these birds : one, " tor;" for the turtle-dove ; the otlier, " jouah," for all the varieties of pigeon which are spoken of as such, or as " doves." ♦ Matt'^^x! 16. " Guileless," as opposed to the serpent, is rather the mei>'ain«r. ftt BIBLE. [Chap. THE PLAIN OF SHARON. 47 ijTolis^, as a sign of oung pigeon Avere ibraliara ■■^ so early sj'mbol of purity, of endearment, as lot the soul of thy wicked." 3 Many osed to refer to the doves or pigeons at pecially naming it ; varieties of pigeon non pigeons of the ir kind, except the use, except perhaps letached dovecot of lo-mouthed earthen ial mark of wealth ; on a small scale, in ainst the inner wall ; the house-door. It , amidst such fami- n His apostles to be ds us of one great it the production of ery page a joyous or and mankii '1. The valleys, the varying ions, are inte^^^persed Testament for these birds : lali," for all the varieties of » the serpent, is rather the m.] among pictures of life from the crowded haunts of men. The sower and the seed ; the birds of the an- ; he foxes ; the hen and its brood; the lilies and roses; the voice of the turtle ; the fragrance of the orchard ; the blossom ot the almond or vine; the swift deer; the strong cage ; the twittering sparrow; the lonely pelican; the stoi-k vetunnug with spring; planting, pruning, digging, and harvesting ; the hiring^f labourers; the toil of the hsherman; the playing of children ; the sound of the mdl ; the lord and his servants ; the merchantman ; the courtier m silken robes ; and a thousand other notices oi hie and nature utilised to teach the highest lessons, give the sacred writings a perennial freshness and universal interest. The ruins of Tibneh cover the slopes and crest oE a hill surrounded on the north and east by a deep ravine. On the south the hill sinks, in terraces, to a valley fonuerly covered in part with houses, and marked by a magnihcent evergreen oak, one of the finest in Palestine. Fdlowmg this valley, the last slopes of a hill facing Tibii^h are before us; their rocky sides revealing several tombs, the remains of an ancient necropolis. On the top of the heio-ht is a small Mussulman village, with several ancient cist'erns. and a number of finely-cut stones of ancient masonry, built into the modern houses. The tombs have been hewn out, at different levels, on the north slopes of the hill, eight being more noticeable than the rest. One, however, is much the most remark- able. Its oblong vestibule, cut in the rock, is supported by four pillars : two, at the side, half separated from the bill ; the others, in the centre, entirely so. They have no capitals, and are ornamented at th.ir tops only by a few simple mouldings. Immediately behind them, the face of the rock, forming the front wall of the tomb, is pierced by no fewer than 2SS small openings, in eight rows ; some 48 THE HOLY LAND AND THE BIBLE. [Chap. square, otliers triangular, but most half-circles, made in former days as recesses in which to place a burning lamp, in honour of the illustrious dead. At the right of this frontage of rock is the low and narrow entrance to the tomb, leading into a chamber, in the waUs of which are fourteen excavations for as many occupants. On the south, facing the door, a broader entrance, cut through the rock, leads to the innermost chamber —the place of honour— and in this there is only a hollow for one corpse. It must have been the last resting-place of the chief of the pale assembly here gathered in their last home ; the outer graves being those of his family. Such a tomb must evidently have been designed for a very illustrious personage : the niches for lamps outside show, moreover, that it was recognised as such by long- past generations. " No one," writes Gruerin, " who was not an object of public veneration can be fancied as held in so much honour, and who couM this be but Joshua, at what is, seemingly, beyond doubt, Timnath- Serah?"^ The tomb shows marks of the highest antiquity, for it is similar to those made by the Canaanites before the arrival of the Hebrews m their country. Still more, the Abbe Richard states that in 1870 he found in the soil of its different sepulchral chambers numbers of flint knives, in agreement with the record that those used at the first circumcision at Gilgal were buried with Joshua.^ The identification of this spot with the tomb of Joshua • Josh. xxiv. 26. M. Guerin goes into details of the identification. » Sept. Josh. xxi. 42 ; xxiv. 30. Guerin, Descr. de la Palestine : Samarie, ii. 100—102. Richm, Bib. Lex. : art. " Tibuch." A high authority, who disputes Guerin's conclusions, writes :— " The oldest Jewish tombs have no porches like that of Tibneh. It probably dates about the second cen- tury B.C. Of Canaauite tombs nothing is known. Tliere is reason to sup- pose Canaanites did not bury, but burned, their dead." [E BIBLE. [Chap. 111.1 THE PLAIN OF SHARON. 49 half-circles, made in ilace a burning lamp, At the right of this rrow entrance to the le waUs of which are occupants. On the ntrance, cut through lamber— the place of loUow for one corpse, -place of the chief of their last home ; the e been designed for a lies for lamps outside ised as such by long- 's Guerin, "who was n can be fancied as D couM this be but ond doubt, Timnath- highest antiquity, for Canaanites before the ntry. Still more, the tie found in the soil of imbers of flint knives, those used at the first vith Joshua.*^ ith the tomb of Joshua ils of the identification, icr. de la Palestine : Saviarie, th." A high authority, who oldest Jewish tombs have no lates about the second cen- wn. Tliere is reason to sup- ■ dead." is however disputed by Captain Condor, of the Palestine Survey,^ who regards the village of Kefr Iiriris, nine miles from Nablus, as the true site. We shall visit it at a later period, and leave its description till then. ]}ut it is at least striking to find that, besides the similarity of " Tibneh " and " Timnath," there is a village, about three miles to the east, called Kefr Ishua — Joshua's village — while a great oak-tree, near the tomb, is called Sheikh et Teim — " the Chief [who was] the Servant of God." That a solitary tree, of a height so moderate to Western notions as forty feet, should be thus famous is due, apart from local traditions, to the entire absence of lofty trees in Western Palestine. The country may once have boon wooded, as the region beyond Jordan now is, but, if so, its glory has long departed. The present comparatively waterless condition of the land marked it ages ago, for even before the invasion of the Hebrews wells and under- ground cisterns are both mentioned. The latter, indeed, are spoken of more than sixty times in the Old Testament,- and we meet with the word for a " well"^ twenty-five times in the Pentateuch. Of the two words, on the other hand, used for " woods," the one much the more frequently found means, rather, the low thorny brushwood or scrub which covers many rocky and barren spots in the uplands of Palestine, known in Bible times as the "yaar." Such places are still called " waar " by the peasantry ; the old name thus remaining almost unchanged. A traveller wishing to take a course which would lead him into ground so difficult, is warned from attempting it lay the assur- ance that " waar " is before him, and happy is he if he accept the warning and avoid the tangle of gnarled under- » Pal. Fund Reports, 1878, p. 22. ' See the word "<^3 — the equivalent of cistern. 3 -m—" beer." gl^rtt^gi-^ Vfei ^tB.,^ s,;:£;5ai.-g^':.KffiE5?fn' "te »•?»;*-"' 60 THE HOLT LAND AND THE BIBLE. [Chap. growth, often anned with si)ines or ])rickU's, and made more formidable by the chaos of loose rocks and stones amidst which it i?rows. It was in a " yaar " that Jonathan found the wild honey ' oozing from some rocky cleft where the bees had stored it,^ for the dry recess, s of the lime- stone rocks of Palestine everywhere otter fitting places for layin- up the comb. The battle in which Absalom was over- thrown took place in the " yaar " of Ephraim,^ and it is not difficult to imagine how, in such a stony, thorny labyrmth as a "yaar" presents, "the wood devoured more people that day than the sword." =* True, there was at least one tree high enough to catch the hair of the false-heartea prince as he rode under it on his mule, but it is spoken of, each time it is mentioned, as " the " oak, as if it alone rose above the stunted jungle around. Ood threatens to make the vineyards and fig orchards of apostate Israel mto a "yaar,"* and Micah foretells that "Jerusalem shall be- come heaps, and the mountain of the house [of God] as the hilly yaar " *— a tangle of wilderness brakes. Still, roots of trees which must have been of a goodly size are found, here and there, even in such stony, stunted, brush-forests, useful now only for charcoal-burn- ing. But I question if ever there was much forest, in our sense, west of the Jordan since the historical period. The other word translated "wood " in Scripture '> does not help us, for it comes from a root which may refer either to cutting down, or to being entangled or interwoven, which suits a thicket rather than an open forest. It is note- worthy that no trees are spoken of as obtained by Solomon from Palestine, but that cedar and cypress from Lebanon, and sandal-wood from the East, were imported from 1 1 Sam. xiv. '25-27. *Ho8can.l2 2 Dout. xxsii. 13 ; Ps. Ixxxi. 16. * Micah in. 12 ; Jer. xxvi. 13. 3 2 Sum. xviii. 6, 8. (East of Jordau.) « " Horesh." BIBLE. [Chap. THE PLAIN OF SHARON. 61 ])ri(:kU's, and made . A stone rdler is, therefore, constantly brought mto reqm^ sition to close any crack or fill up any hole. If neglected » The word is " Goliloth." It occurs in Joshua xiii. 2 ; xxii 10 U. I cauHurace the grouuds on which the trausktiou » telU is based. But 3 BIBLE. [Chap. THE PLAIN OF SHArtON. A8 y the appoarnnce of or, one mif^lit siiy, in India and E^'ypt. and the pulveriHinjif ally, in the lapse of i place so much that, B the counterpart oi Is. It is striking to r . vanished hamlets, near some spring or easily »v\ik, and also allu'.ial earth. In are ibund to consist !, tluu-efore, that the e country, were glad terial at once cheapest ; of some of the towns ich had heen utterly r that the Canaanites s of sun-dried hricks, n Joshua, if Captain he spring, by mixing clay. This compound ; ten inches broad and filled, are left in the ;rials need to be often L the roofs, which are ,rk of brush, thorns, or im or two, leak badl> . itly brought into requi- my hole. If neglected shuaxiii.2; xxii.lO.n. But [atiou " telU " is baaed. for a single wint(>r the roof would be full of holes before .spring, and then the unprotected walls, sor.ked with the rain, would bulge out and fall into ruin. As in the days of Ecelesiastes, " By slothfulness the roof sinketh in ; and through idleness of the hands the house leaketh."^ There is no mortar of any kind to give strength, so that the only safety is in keei)ing tht; building watertight by con- tinual oversight. Kzekiel must often have seen similar houses sunk into shapeless heaps for want of this pre- caution, for a single heavy rain-storm may beat them down, and hence he cries out, " Hay unto them who daub it with untenipered mortar, that it shall fall. There shall be an overflowing shower, and ye, O great hail-stones, shall come down, and a stormy wind shall rend it."- A rain-soaked roof is only too well known in Palestine, and has given rise to more than one proverb of great antiquity. " A continual dropping in a very rainy day and a contentious woman," the Book of Proverbs tells us, " a.-e alike." ^ In my own case, at Tiberias, the rain fell through the tent on me in great drops ; there was no pro- tection from it. Rest was impossible ; the annoyance made the whole night miserable. Could there be a better com- parison for a brawling woman than this perpetual splash, splash, when one wished above all things to be quiet? " He that would hold her in," continues the text, "tries to hold in the wind," an impossible task in the draughty houses of the East, whatever one may do to shut it out. Or we may render the words, " which it is idle to hope one can close up in his hand," for she is like " one whose right hand seizes soft fat, which slips through his fingers."* The language of Proverbs, and the mention of " houses of clav " by Job, show how old mud-brick dwellings are » Eccles. X. 18 (R.V.). * Ezek. xiii. 11. ' Prov. xxvii. 15. « Prov. xxvii. 15 (Hitzig and Nowack). 14 THE HOLY LAND AND THE DIDT.E. [Chap. | i Ml PalcstiTu.. Other Scrii.tunil allusi..ns r.-f.-r to .x fnrthrr ..vil t.K, often eounected with th.-i... K/..-ki.-l .hi- a h..l.- throu^^h the Hoft wall of lii« house as a si-n to the people, and earried out throu-h it the hun.lle h.- was to take w,th him in his symbolic i.il!.rimai;.«.' an.l tins .asy cxeavatMrn throu.rh th.'si.h' of a (Iw-llin- place is often taken advati- ta-e of by thieves, who " ni the dark, diy; through houses, and steal.'"' . The site of Antipatris, after loni? misconception, luvs, within the last few years, hecn d.-linitely iixed at Ifas-el- Ain on the ^'reat Uonian road which once stretched from Ciusarea to Jerusalem. It was formerly identified with the villa-e of Kefr Saha, some miles farther north, on the plain, hut a careful measurement of the known distance of Antii)atris from various points has shown that a mistake l.ad been made in the ideiitilication, and that the exact fulfilment by Has-el-Ain of all the requirements leaves no question as to its superlv)r and, indeed, incontestable claims. We know, for example, that Antipatns, apart from the question of its distance from various places, was on the Uoimtn road, was surrounded by a river, and lay close t.. a hilly rid-(.; but this is not the ease with Kefr babu. No ]loman road leads to it from the hills ; it has no river, but only a couple of wells and the rain-water which collects in two hollows during the winter ; and no trees or ruins of a town exist. Kas-el-Ain, on the contrary, besides being on the in-ecise spot which known data require, stands beside the noble springs of the river Aujeh, which is a r,erennial stream. The lloman road from Tibneli, down the steep hills, runs direct to it. There is a : < ?e mound covered with heaps o? stone, old foundation broken columns, and chiselled blocks, half buried 'dst the weeds and flowers which always grow up among rums, i E/.ck. xii. 5. * J«b ^"v- 1*5 ' Matt, vi 19 (Greek). J ; imiTiE. [Chap. IIT.l TMF. IM.AIN OF SUAHON. MS rt'l't-r to a lurtlK-r Kzfkifl tlu<; a ImiIc I sitjn to tli(> people, he wuM to take with this .asy excavation i often taken advan- (li^r thnmgh houses, misconception, has, tely tixed at Was-el- once stretched frori u'l-ly identilied with farther north, on tlio the known distance shown tliat a mistake , and that the exact quirenients leaves no indeed, incontestable uit Antipatris, apart various places, was on a river, and lay close case with Kefr Saba, hills ; it has no river, n-water which collects id no trees or ruins of Dntrary, besides beinj,' data require, stands ,er Aujeh, which is a d from Tibneh, down here is a . • ere mound . foundation broken ,lf buried ^dst the rrow up among ruins. Matt. vi. 19 (Greek). The sprint; whieh bursts out from imder this mound is «me of the lar^'est in all Palestine, and forms, at on.-e, (|uite a river llowint; (.11" towards the sea: n(» di.ubt that wliich .losephus mentions as .surroundini,' the town.' The lulls which, he says, are near, rise at little more than a mile to the east, and thou«,'h there are now no trees to meet another detail of his notice of the place, it would be iin- possible to ima st.mes were ^atbered out, tlie .sides built up where they had ^Mven way. and earth strewn on the bare sheets of rock, over which, till then, the traveller had the greatest ditUculty in passing' safely. When Consul Hid, was travelling thi-ou-h kooi'distan. ten or fifteen peasants accompanied him, to act as pioneers in repairing bridges, and sn,oothing rough places. We can understand from such customs the language of t le prophet respecting the triumphal ivturu of the ex,les Irom Babylon, under the guidance of God Himself as their Leader-" Prepare ye the way of Jehovah, make straight in the desert a highway f..r our God Lvery valley shall be exalted, and every n,oiu,tam and hill shall be made low; and the crooked si.uil be made straight, and the rough places plain." . ^efr Saba-that is, the village Saba-lies nearly six miles north of Ras-el-Ain, about half a mile to the west of the Roman road, from which it looks very picturesque; palm-trees rising here and there, and olive-grounds and orchards stretching north and west of it. It stands on a swell of the plain, but, though nine miles from the sea, is only 108 feet above it. Its houses are of mud and small stones, with square rain-pools of mud bricks. Its wells he to the east. There are said to be 800 inhabitants. On 1 Ifla. xl. 3, 4j xlU. 11 J Ivii. U: Ixii. 10 ; Mai. iii. 1. ; niuiif!. [Ch.vi-. TUE I'LAIN OP 8».\H<>\. IT (listn'ssinj; ciiuu^'li. (« been lUiulc soiuf- I' ctistom, as it was i> "cast up a l»i^,'l»- anticipation of the II out' of the Russian oly Laud lately, the I Xahlus, a distance description, was re- •e fifatherod out, the n\y, and earth strewn ,'hich, till then, the f in passing' safely. throuLjh Koordistan, iin, to act as pioneers f rou^di ])laces. We the lan«,'uaj:;e of the return of the exiles of God Himself as y of Jehovah, make for our God. Every )untain and hill shall id be made straight, Saba— lies nearly six I a mile to the west of loks very picturesque ; md olive-grounds and of it. It stands on a ! miles from the sea, is are of mud and small id bricks. Its wells lie bOO inhabitants. On di. 10 ; Mai. iii. 1. ml „„, of the Hpurs to the east of the road, and about as far 1 t as llfr Saba, but 17.. iVet higher above the seu. Kalkdie ; i,,^.ilUge. with eisterns to tlu. m>rtb. and a rauH-d :,ut^..west^.f it 'n>-'-i -• -:-'y ; 7 ;: ; at the foot of the hills, which are Ircpu-ntly do te,l NV.th :!,Lges. abnost undistinguisbable frou. t e sod an.un . because of the leaden colour of the mad huts. 01m X ^'i^>i^'^' --y •'^ ^''^' «•'''"" ''''' ''T "'• """ 7Z than villa'cs, and. for one olive grown, there .s room oi a dred. Dry channels, worn by the winter torrents from tl^. bills, were nun,erous. son,e deep, others con.parat.vely lal L. About a mile olf on the left hand, lulls, abou a^feetlugh. rosetbrapartoftheway;tben.a^^^^^ six miles north of Kefr Saba, the pla.n broadened o t a wide sweep. A large part of it lay uncu Uvatul h > ..round ut.der the plough belonging to he peopl m u tilla.n's on the hills to the right, where they are sate, tha, X^;"would be on the lowlands. The lab.mr of go, g to these distant patches of barley or whea .s no ng con.pared to the danger of plundenng Arabs, vl h escaped by living in the uplands. Thus the peasant has l to " go forth " to sow. often to a great distance Iron, his home^ The breadth of soil tilled depends, each year, on the tranquillity of the country. Zeito, a con Jevablc village. Iyin« 370 foot a ,ove he ,oa, on the edge o£ the hills, ,n;.rks a change >" *'»; ^l'' " acter of the plain. Groups of line sprnigs hu,»t from the ^Lx abonUonr n,ile. to the west, an,! lorn. -'1-;;-^^ streams, dear to the buffalo ; Ion, grass "^^'"^^^l^t^^ the soft mud offering the coolness .n wh.eh that e iture delights. Two perennial streams, the Iskanderuneh and the Metjir, are fed from these springs. The hdls are of ^ Mult. xiii. 'i- 58 THE HOLY LAND AND THE BIBLE. [Chap. III. soft white lime, like chalk ; but a harder rock, stoppinj^ the percolation of surface water, lies below. Caves, tombs, and cisterns, in the rock, are fi'equent. As the track approached the line of Caisarea it descended once more to the plains, passing between the hills and a region of oak forest. Here the slopes and plain are alike covered with line trees, growing rather thinly ; but it is not a comfort- able region for travellers, as :t is the haunt of a tribe of Arabs, known as the " Club-bearers," very poor and equally unscrupulous. The white narcissus was to be seen 'every- where, but it was too early for the blue iris, which by some autlioritics has been identified, as we have seen, with the lily of the valley. To the south the trees were thicker than farther north ; the scenery everywhere, how- ever, being very charming. 1;: iiiiaai!.'»'ri-iSa>*a»'' HE BIBLE. [Chap. III. harder rock, stopping below. Caves, tombs, juent. As the track jscentled once more to i and a region of oak are ahke covered with it it is not a comfort- lie haunt of a tribe of ' very poor and equally was to be seen '^very- le blue iris, which by as we have seen, with !Outh the trees were jery everywhere, how- CHAPTEK IV. C^SAREA — ATHLIT. The sand, which elsewhere is generally confined to the coast and a narrow strip inland, has overwhelmed the country for four miles east of Ca'sarea, to the edge of the oak forest, which, by the way, is the last remnant of the great forests of which Strabo speaks. The ruins of the once famous city lie low, amidst broad dunes of drifted sand, so that they cannot be seen more than a mile off on the land side. Ca)sarea must always have a profound interest from its connection with the early history of the Church. The devout centurion Cornelius, whose " prayers and alms had gone up for a memorial before God," was stationed here with his regiment, the Italian cohort, when the vision was granted in which an angel directed him to send to Joppa for Peter. To induce the apostle to set out, however, a vision to him also was needed, enforcing the lesson that " God is no respecter of persons : but that in every nation he that feareth Him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with Him." ^ That vision was the proclamation, in unmistakable symbolism, that the Gentile should be fellow-heir with the Jew of the "unsearchable riches of Christ." As the first con- vert from a non-Is.aelitish race, Cornelius is the repre- sentative of all who in every nation have since believed 1 Acts X. 31, 35. 60 THE HOLY LAND AND THE BIBLE. [Chap. in the Crucifiod One. In liis case the Holy Ghost was first poured out on the heathen, and his baptism was the first outside the chosen peop^;. Henceforth, no man could any lon<^er be called " common or unclean," ^ and it was made clear that " to the Gentiles also hath God granted repentance unto life." ^ To all the nations beyond the sea which laved the shores of Palestine, Britain among them, the gates of the Kingdom of Heaven were then pro- claimed to be standing open. It was at Caesarea also that the evangelist Phdip, with his four daughters, made his home.3 St. Paul passed through it on his way to Tarsus, and he landed at it from Ephesus and from Ptolemais.'* In its prison, moreover, two years of his life were spent, before he finally left the East for Bome and Spain.* The track by which he had been brought from Antipatris to Csesarca, under cover of night, had been for the most part ours. In the theatre, built by Herod the Great, his grand- father—Herod Agrippa— in the fourth year of his reign was struck with mortal disease.^ He had ordered public shows in honour of Caisar to be exhibited in the theatre facing the sea, on the south of the city, and on the second day of these festivities, the day which had been fixed for his public appearance,^ presented himself in robes of silver tissue, in the early morning. The sun shone full on the amphitheatre, built as it was for open-air exhibitions, his beams striking back from Agrippa's glittering robes with a splendour that made him seem more than mortal. Nor were flatterers long in using the opportunity to hail him as a god, a form of blasphemous adulation long common towards kings in the East, and latterly introduced towards the Caesars. Proud to be exalted like them, the king 1 Acts X. 28, * Acts xviii. 22 ; xxi. 8. •; « Acts xi. 18. * Acts xxiv. 27. » Acts xxi. 8. ' Acts xii. 21 ; Jos. Ant, xix. 8, 2. * Acts XXV. 23. E BIBLE. [Chap. W.] C^SAREA-ATHLIT. m e the Holy Gliost ■n, and his baptism [J..;. Henceforth, no mmon or unclean," ^ ?ntihs also hath God 11 the nations beyond 'stine, Britain among eaven were then pro- ! at Caesarea also that daughters, made his )n his way to Tarsus, md from Ptolemais."* f his life were spent, me and Spain.* The t from Antipatris to een for the most part the Great, his grand- rth year of his reign e had ordered public libitcd in the theatre ty, and on the second ;h had been fixed for iself in robes of silver mn shone full on the en-air exhibitions, his glittering robes with »re than mortal. Nor pportunity to hail him [ulation long common rly introduced towards L like them, the king i. 22 ; X3U. 8. r. 27. 21 ; Jos. Ant, xix. 8, 2. accepted the monstrous homage, but only to his ruin, for there and then a violent pain smote him in his body, so that he had to be carried to his palace, where, after five days, he died, worn out with pain.^ The Acts of the Apostles adds, " eaten by worms." So, the Jews held, Antioclius Epiphanes, the great persecutor of their religion, had died.- Ca'sarea was one of the cities built by Herod the Great, a man of vast energy and ability. The site chosen was that of an old town known as Strato's Tower, the name being changed in honour of the Emperor Augustus : a form of flattery common in that age, when so many cities were rebuilt or founded to undo the havoc of the great civil w: rs, which had laid so many places in rums. Samaria, Ascalon, Antipatris, and many other towns, owed much to the magnificent conceptions of Herod. But in Caesarea his genius displayed itself in results surpassing the architectural triumphs of any of the old Hebrew kincrs excepting perhaps Solomon, whose great walls at Jerusalem, to prepare a site for his Temple, must have been truly wonderful creations. Till Herod's day the plain of Sharon had been simply a broad tract of pasture, forest and tillage, with no history, but he raised it to the foremost place in the land. The want of a port to receive the commerce of the West had always been felt, and the closer relations of all countries, under Rome, had deepened the feeling. The shore offered no natural harbour, but there was a rocky ledge at Strato's Tower, as at Ascalon on the south, and Dor on the north, and this Herod chose as the seat of a projected port. In twelve years a splendid city rose on the ledge and its neighbourhood, with broad quays, magnificent bazaars, spacious public buildings and courts, arched sailors' homes, and long avenues^ of commodious streets. A double harbour had > Jos. Ant, xix. 28. « 2 Mace. ix. 5-9. THE HOLY LAND AND THE BIBLE. [Chap. 1;* i, ^1 been constructed, of about 200 yards cacb way, and also a pier, over laO yards in lengtb, built of stones fitty feet Ion.', eij,'bteen broad, and nine tbick. Tbis great structure^ was raised out of water twenty fatboms deep, and was 200 feet wide, a wall standing on it, and several towers, tbe largest of wbicb was called Drusus, after the step-son of Augustus. The pier was adorned, more- over, with splendid pillars, and a terraced walk extended round the harbour. On an eminence, beside a temple of polished stone, near the shore, rose a colossal statue of Augustus, as Jupiter Olympus, visible far out at sea. and ano'ther of Home, deified as Juno. A liuge open-air theatre was built on the slopes of the hills, some miles north of the city, as well as a great amphitheatre. 500 feet in diameter, and capable of containing 20.000 spectators. A hippodrome, or as we might call it. a circus, over 1,000 feet long, rose in the east of the city; the remains of a goal-post of granite, still seen on its site, showing the magnificence of the whole structure ; for the three blocks of which it consists originally formed a conical pillar, seven feet six inches high, standing on a mass of granite proportionately massive, and all resting, apparently, on a base formed of a single granite block, thirty-four feet long, brought from Egypt. The walls of the Herodian city enclosed an area of 400 acres, but gardens and villas, it may be presumed, stretched far beyond them in the centuries of the Eoman peace. Besides the theatres, a grand palace, afterwards the residence of the Roman governors, was erected for himself by Herod ; and he had the wisdom, so unusual in the East, to provide for the city a complete system of underground sewerage, after the Italian plan. To supply the city with water two aqueducts were built; one, with a double conduit of great size, stretching r.v;ay, for the most part on arches, but w ar w T S' a! w ti C tl V f; T S I i £ i ; BIBLE. [Chap. CESAREA-ATHLIT. ea each way, and also Duilt of stones fifty thick. This f?reat wenty fathoms deep, ig on it, and several jailed Drusus, after was adorned, more- •aced walk extended , beside a temple of a colossal statue of le far out at sea, and A liuge open-air ;he hills, some miles great amphitheatre, of containing 20,000 we might call it, a the east of the city; :, still seen on its site, ole structure ; for the originally formed a I high, standing on a isive, and all resting, single granite block, Egypt. The walls of ea of 400 acres, but esumed, stretched fsir Roman peace. Besides ards the residence of tor himself by Herod ; n the East, to provide mderground sewerage, T the city with water ;h a double conduit of lost part on arches, but in part through a tunnel,^ first north, then east, for over eight miles, to the great springs issuing all over this di'^trict from the Carmel hills, which slant down beyond Cx«sarea, on the other side of the plain. The second aqueduct, on the level of the gronud. ran three miles north, to the perennial stream of the river Zerka. The ruins now left have seen a strange history. It was in Ca;sarea that the conftict arose between Jews and Greeks which led to the last Jewish war, and it was in the circus, which has long since perished, that Titus, after the fall of Jerusalem, celebrated splendid games in which over 2,000 Jewish prisoners were killed, as gladiators, in the arena. Two centuries later Caisarea was the seat of a Christian bishop. Here the iUus- trious Father, Origen, found an asylum; and here the Church historian. Eusebius, a native of Palestine, wore the mitre. ^ With the Crusades a new Csesarea rose amidst the wreck of that of Herod, but it has long since shared the fate of its predecessor. The shattered skeleton of the medieval castle rises high above the ancient mole on the south side of the harbour ; the ends of rows of marble pillars, from the city of Herod, protruding from the walls in which they have been imbedded to give additional strength. Others lie on the strand, the wall into which they were built having perished. Still others, sixty or seventy in number, and from five to nearly twenty feet long, lie side by side, on a reef or ancient mole, once the north side of the harbour, and form a kind of jetty about 200 feet long. Huge masses of granite lying about, tell the same tale of ruin. Of Herod's temple only the foundations remain, the buildings vvhich 1 Long staircases leading down to this are cut in tho rock. 2 Consecrated A.D. 315. THE HOLT LAND AND THE BIBLE. [Chap. m. 64 tbey adornod having Ion- since dlsappoarod ; but tho ,vl Uonoss of these foundations, contrasting strongly with the l.rown sandstone of hvter buiUk>rs. shows that, as Josophus tells us. they were brought from a ;l-tance at .n-eat expense. The defences of the old ««>";-« ci> have long since perished, but the sandstone walls of the Ca^sarea of the Middle Ages still show massive fragments, some of them from twenty to thirty feet high ; their huttresses and moais here and there still perfect. Osev the whole site, amidst a wilderness of thistles, w d tlowers. and thorny growths, lie scattered fallen piUais and heaps of masonry ; the wreck of pahices temples churches! mosques, and public buildings. On the top o the hill, in the south part of the Crusading ci y. are the foundations of the cathedral, and on the north are the ruins of a second church, of much smaller dimensions. Once gay. C.sarea. which even in the Middle Ages was famous for the running streams in its streets, its date-palms, and oranges, sweet and bitter, has for many generations been at best only a place where the passing shephe-d folds his flocks- for the walls and buildings were destroyed by the Sultan Bib.rs in 1205. But the prosperity of the city has alway. depended on artificial sources. Since it was without a natural harbour the destruction of the mole cut off trade by sea. and he breaking of the aqueducts stopped the supply of water, for thefe is only one brackish well wxthm the walls. Man withdrawn, the restless sand was free to spread its shroud over all bis works, and create the desolation that now reigns far and near. North of Ca^'sarea. the Carmel hills approach withm a little more than a mile of the shore, close to which ttjei^ is a lower range, leaving only a narrow stnp oi p am between the two. To the east, however, before this IV. na to ba m( m! do rei in hu CO th It til ru S( ot a y< al T m B tl bi ai a: ii o c 2 BIBLE. [Chap. IV.] C^SAREA—ATHLIT. (55 ^appeared ; but tho isting stroiifjly witli lers, shows tliat, as ; from a distance at le old Eonian city ndstone walls of the ^v massive fragments, ty feet high; their I still perfect. Over ss of thistles, wild ittered fallen pillars of pahices, temples, lings. On the top of usading city, are the m the north are the smaller dimensions, in the Middle Ages ms in its streets, its bitter, has for many Lce where the passing , walls and buildings rs in 12G5, But the depended on artificial natural harbour, the rade by sea, and the [ the supply of water, i^ell within the walls. was free to spread its ite tlie desolation that hills approach within a i-e, close to which there , narrow strip of plain however, before this narrower strip begins, the hills retire three or four miles, to trend southwards at that distance. i\t the foot of tiiis bay of height? , steadily rising till they become tlio central mountains of the land, the wliole plain is more or less marshy and unsafe. Treacherous bogs and spongy turf, dotted witii bu. hes and tall reeds, characterise the whole region, which we carefully avoided, as our hor es would infallibly have sunk every here and there to their girths, had we ventured to cross it. All the hill-slopes are covered with a sprinkling of oaks, which are like those to the south, on the plain, but that they grow more openly. It is, indeed, a nearly universal feature of trees in Pales- tine that they stand thus apart; the interval being, as a rule, covered with a tangle of thorns or undergrowth. Scrub is much more prevalent, as I have already said, west of the Jordan, than trees of any height, though there are a good many fairly well-grown oaks and other trees be- yond Nazareth and round Cajsarea PhiUppi, but they always stand like trees in a park rather than in a wood. Tabor is one mass of scrub and stunted growths, and Car- mel is much the same ; while the hills of Ephraim and Benjamin have scarcely any wood on them at all. Indeed, the whole region east of the watershed at Nablus is very bare, from Gilboa to the wilderness in the south. West and north-west of Hebron, on the other hand, the hills are rough, once more, with scrub. The numerous herds of goats are in great part the cause of this dwarf timber- ing, but the charcoal-burners, who dig out the very roots of the bushes for charcoal, are even more guilty of creating the treeless desolation. It may be that the Bible word " yaar " once meant woods in our sense, and that the Arab " waar," nov/ u^i^d for stunted, scraggy thickets, has come to be so used from the disappearance of trees worthy of the name. It is at THE HOLY LAND AND THE BIBLE. [<"ap. I II ee least cortuin that wo road of Kirjath Jearim. "the Town "1 Woods." or " yaars," and that thm- was evc-n m tho owbarn-n valleys oast of liothol a " yaar " m wh>c b L found sholti.^ Joromiah and ..hor prophots- spoak of lions boars, and othor wild boasts hauntnig the yaar in Xi day and the murn.ur of the leaves m a ,reat L when';tirrod by the wind- the str.pp-.' ot the r -y the violence of a storm ; ^ the hewn,, down w,t L J, which is used as a figure of the ^-voc w. h vv^n^ an •• evador hews down a widespread populabon and the an .ivuuLi 1 frenuontly mtroduced gra.Hi spectacle of woods on hi 0, are ntquu y • 1 +;„ Wn-urorv" If not aboundni, with lotty, IC It wS l^ke ou. own, the land^cvpos of Pa,e». Ze S Lave been richer Ion, a«o than tl.y a. now M some form of scrub, or trees of moderate giowth, snob as ar,' still seen in some places. iC Zerka in part drains the wide, n,a,.hy grouml .,o„: the f ot of the hills, but a dam built about a m,le along Tjit lou ^.^^ ^^jj j^j^j, from the soa, to give a tull lus oi wa by neglect overflowed a large district north and south • tUl i is a mere swamp, in which, strange to say, it is affirmed that crocodiles are still found, though very rar ly On was. indeed, killed in it some years since, and sent to ?he Eng i«l^ miskonary at Nazareth, where Furrer saw the preservfd skin ; ^ but in any case they are exceedingly rare ihuge lizard measuring from three to five ^eet -^^^^^ times in Palestine, and common m Egypt -^ f^ ^^^^ peninsula, may have passed muster as a -« j^^^ ^ ^^^^ cases where these hateful saunans have ^ ^^ ^^PP;^;^ to have been seen elsewhere; but m the Zerka :|frSfl^Ivi.0;.e..6;,U.8,A..B^^ic.v.8. 3l8a.vu.2. «Ps.xx>x.9. «* Isa. x. M. • Ps. Ixxxiii. 14 ; Isa. ix. 18 ; Jer. xxi 14 T Schenkel, Bib. Lex., iii. 612. iv.l SU} the gni tov g0( the the the acr Je> wr chi du US( tai foi of an ev CO hi da BIBLE. [Chap. iv.l CvESAREA-ATHLIT. r.7 [eariin, " the Town lere was evt'ii in tin •• yaur" i" vvliicli licr ])rophets- speak Hunting the "yaar" e leaves in a j^reat lie stripping of the hewing down with ic liavoc with which popuhition/' and the •cquontly introduced lunding with lofty, landscapes of Pales- ) than they are now )f moderate growth, /ide, niarshy ground n huilt about a mile water for mills, has riot north and south strange to say, it is d, though very rarely. ;ars since, and sent to where Furrer saw the y are exceedingly rare, e to five feet, found at Egypt and the Sinai as a crocodile in some s have been supposed )ut in the Zerka at ; Amos Hi. 4; Mie. v. 8. 6 Is». X. 34. 4. least the prophets could find materials for tli<'ir Intro* diictiou of the crocodile as their symbol of Hgypt. as so fretpientiy happens.' The village of Ivefr Saba- .seems to owe its name to the commonness near it, in old times, of a ;iiu then thickly covering many nearer spots. It is bi<.it 'r> the form of a half-circle, the front measuring l()'> feet across. The stone seats have long since been ca; \ \ > Joppa, Jerusalem, or Beirut, as building material, like the wreck of Ciesarea itself ; but the vaults beneath and the chambers, from which the horses and other animals intro- duced in the displays were brought into the arena, are still used as stables and granaries by the peasants. The spec- tators must have enjoyed varied delights in such a spot, for, apart from the excitement of the games, the beauty of the view over the plain before them, and the mountains and sea, on the one hand and the other, is bewitching even now. From Ca?sarea the best road to this outlying country resort of its citizens is along the top of the double high-level aqueduct; but though not, perhaps, actually dangerous, the journey is such as to need steady nerves. The Zerka, which must have had crocodiles in its ^ Isa. xxvii. 1 ; li. 9 ; Ezek. xxix. 3 ; xxxii. 2. * Kefr or Capliar uieaus " village." ? 2 TITE HOT.Y LAKI) AND THE lUULE. [t'llAI'. -•■ ' rt:t:'::::':^rl:i";;.n:- stront? curront, lu.in tnt t.» x > :^S,I by a .uurow Crusa.ling fort, near winch ave «„• one Bees of a l„ng-i»« r'P"' ^ 'tZ^^ About nine tiurtcemu j ,^^^ ^^^ ^^ x^y the 1 Roland, Pul., p. 730. lUULE. (Chap. iv.l CiESAREA -ATHI-IT. i(«nt iiiuno was tlif V stony bed, with a ,s across and about its waters bii,'b('r np ; into widi' uiarsbos, theso the tanuirisk .•am b('b)\v the dam rse, bi-„'lu'r up, bcin-,' . and rushes. Tt can at the mill U'adin- the sea, where it is d are brought back that its mouth is t, near which are the • , only a very narrow rroves, baulking on the i-ange of rocks, about the sea on the west, e hours from Ciesarea pUiin, at Carmel, but iterest in the evidences strikingly in contrast district. About nine ie the ruins of Athlit, f pilgrims during the lontory shooting out a IS made use of by the ute for a great fortress, old foundations of some was known. An outer still be traced for 800 730. yards north and south, anf, with ribbed arches; illustrations, all of them, of the spirit and the lavish expenditure of means and skill which the Crusaders displayed in thei- structures. _ Si. or sevc.n miles south ..f Athlit he the ruins o Dor, now known as Tanturah ; the ancient chanot-road ninning outside the low coast-hills, near the sea, but sepa- rated Iron, it by a strip of land and marsh A tew goat- herds watering their tlocks at a clay trough were the only hnman beings seen most of the way, but along the edges of a tiny stream, oleanders, lupins, grass, and taU bushes relieved the tameness of the view. The tribe ot Manasseh was to have had this part of the land, but could not. for centuries, drive out the " Canaanite," though in the end it compelled him to pay tribute.^ Four miles south I Juilg. i. 27, 28. T ,0 THE HOLY LAND AND THE BIHLE. (Onr | i .,r Athlit, n..ar tho Muall villaj,.. .,f Suraf.Mwl a pleasant ,,li.l- iroux sand ami n.arslus was ..iVm.l by tu-lds ..» sesame, mill.t. and tobacc. as well as by some pahn-trees near the shore, and h^,' orehards. f.>r wh.eh the spot .s famous. Indian corn, ve^M-tables, olivs. I.^s, and oth.-r fruit are L'rown here and there in these parts by th.' ni- dustry of the people of one or two villages. Old .,narnes. t(,nd.s, ruins, and bo^' are, however, more fre.pient than cul- tivated lields or Kiinh.ns, reaching up to the ruins of Ian- turah, which stand on a rouoh pron.ont.»ry, with a tower thirty feet hi^M,. showin^^ the site of an old Crusadm^^ fortress. The m<.d.'m villain- is a little farther south, on the site of the old Canaanite city of Dor.' afterwards the Dora of the IJomans. me.uorials of which, in the shape of pilhirs and sculptured capitals, slabs of marble, and hewn stones, strew the shore. A few mud huts, two or hree lx>tter than the rest, make up the hamlet which looks miserable enou^d. in its environnient of sand and marshy Hat One of the principal liouses consisted ot a sin^Me square room, of K-od size, phxstered with mud, and rooied with branches \ou^ since varnished black by the smoke. These hung down roughly over one half of the room ; the other half was hidden by a canvas ceiling. 1 he^door haa no hin-..s, but was lifted to its place, or from it, and the windows were only square holes in the mud walls A clay bench, joined to the wall, ran along one side of the room serving for chairs by day and sleeping-places by mght. A rouMi cooking table of clay and stone, from the ruins. was at one corner, with a little charcoal glowing on the top of it-chielly. as it seemed, to roast cotlee-berries and boil water in which to infuse them, when they had been duly pounded in a stone or wooden mortar. It cannot be said that this neighbourhood is a very 1 Josh. xvii. U. BIBLE. fCH\? iv.l CiKSAREA-ATHIilT. n iraffiid, 11 plt'iisiint ilVt-ri'd by rH'l< •»'" by Honu' iKilm-trccs which tlu' !t is ics, li'^s, inul other sf parts by tlu' in- iiTvH. ()1<1 he dead ! " How blessed the assurance, finally, in the precious promise : " I will be as the dew unto Israel ! "^ The melon district reaches to the stream El-Falik, a short perennial river, little more than a mile in length, issuing from great marshes behind. Just above it a tongue of sand runs two miles inland, the low hills farther east being thinly dotted with oak-trees of good size — the remains of the old Crusading forest of Assur. North of Mnkhalid the country belongs to a tribe of Arabs, who, though few in number, claim to have formerly held all the * Isa. xviii. 4. Geikie, Hours with the Bible, vol. iv., p. 4+5. ' Isa. xxvi. 19. Geikie, Hours with tlie Bible, vol. v., p. 44. • Ho8. xiv. 5. 1 70 THE HOLY LAND AND THE BIBLE. [Chap. land between Tiberias and Cu-'sarea, Carmel and Beisan. To the south of thp villa{,'e, however, the Nefeiah, or Club- bearing Arabs-a rough set— swarm in the marshes and woodbinds. The bmdscape round is a great rolling phun, with low slopes varying its monotony ; iU height above the sea from 150 to 200 feet, while hills of blown sand stretch all along the shore, to varying distances inland, except where streams force their way through them. At some points, however, the shore rises in bluffs nearly to the level of the plain behind, and these, where they occur, are a great preservative of the soil, preventing the saml from blowing over it. Eound the marshes the pasturage is excellent in spring, and hence Sharon was famous m Jewish history as the feeding-ground lor the royal flocks and herds, in David's time these .x.-r. under a head shepherd, himself a Sharon maa-cr> Shitrai.' ihe pastures of Sharon were, indeed, famous from the earliest times, and had a king in Joshua's day,- while after the Hebrew invasion they s.em for a + ne to have been in the hands of the tribe of Gnd,^ Imi; v.o desolation spread over them by the "o.-evflowiug Hood ^ of Sennacherib s iiav.- ), is bewailed by Isaiah,* wiio, by the way. like all Old i'-«+ • u. ut writers, always speaks of " the Sharon, n-aniu"- !'.- wi! - plain from Cam-el to Jo;>pa. Before this ruin b, tu. Assyrian it must have been specially prosperous, "for "the excellency of Carmel and ^^^^'''>^ ^^ is the prophet's ideal of luxuriant fertil*ty,^ and the .u.. ioy of the Messianic kingdom is, in part, imaged by Sharon being so restored that it would become once more " a fold of Hocks."« Hound the few villages in the plain there are generally 1 1 Cliron. xxvii. 29. ' J"«1'- «*• 1^- „ 3 1 Cliron. V. Hi. For " suhurhs '' road " pasture-. A T ••; u J T«-i xwv 2 * Isii- l^v. 10. BIBLE. [Chap. !armel and Beisan. .e Nefeiah, or Club- Q the marshes and great rolling plain, ■ ; iU height ahove lills of blown sand c distances inland, through them. At in bluffs nearly to 6, where they occur, ire'v^t-nting the sand arshes the pasturage :ron was famous in lor the royal flocks ^x.'i'j under a head ■cvf :-;iiitrai.' The )m from the earliest lay," while after the ne to have been in ...c desolation spread ,!! ' of Sennacherib's io, by the way, like aks of " the Bharon," el to Joppa. Before have been specially C'armel and Sharon" crtillty,^ and the full in part, imaged by aid become once more lin there are generally sh. xii. 18. ■ad "pasture*." 8 Isn. kv. 10. jy^l CffiSAREA— ATHLIT. 77 patches of corn, vegetables, or olives; but by far the greater part of the soil is uncultivated. El-Falik is approached through a wild tangle of hawthorn, dwarf oak, arbutus, ano rue, and its siiort course is fringed by the Syrian papyrus reed, which looks at a distance like a dwarfed ])a..,. tree, and by thickets of oleanders and othe^ shrubs. The name of tlie place means " the Cutting," and has been given it from its being only an artificial drain, made to lower the water in the marshes. An uninhabited sandy ground with undulating surface succeeds, stretching nearly Ave miles south in a treeless and houseless desolation. Keeds and rushes spring beside stagnant pools; patches of thistles and coarse grass are the main growths. Some pines, indeed, are to be seen on the sandy slopes; but they are rare and small. A few mud huts here and there, offer- ing shelter to shepherds from the heat by day and the cold by' night, when they chose to take advantage of them, are the only apologies for human habitations. Arsuf, the Apollonia of Josephus,^ lies on the shore between five and six miles south of El-Falik ; but there was nothing to detain us at its ruins except a tunnel near it, cut for 535 feet through the rocks, by the Bomans, I suppose, with an air-shaft half-way ; the object being to drain a great marsh behind. Now, however, it only shows the difference between the past and the present ia Sharon, for it has ages ago become useless, the sand having choked it up for centurios. Between this point an. le river Aujeh, five or six miles north of Joppa, thei as only one small village, a poor place, with a wel rain-tank, near which stood two or three trees ; a ( locust-tree among them. It was from the pods that the Prodigal sought a poor sustenance whc feeding his master's swine:'' :he lowest possible occupa.ion for a 1 Jos. Ant, xiii. 15, 4. ' L«ke xv. 16. d a b or this 78 THE HOLY LAND AND THE BIBLE. [CirAP. Jew, since the employer must have been a heathen, and the swine were, in themselves, an abomination to an Israelite. The thick foliage of the tree, of a deep green, with very dark, glossy, evergreen leaves, rising to a height of about twenty or thirty feet, like a large apple-tree, makes it a striking object in the bare landscape of Palestine. In February it is covered with innumerable purple-red pendent blossoms, which ripen in April and May into liuge crops of pods from six to ten inches long, flat, brown, narrow, and bent like a horn,^ with a sweetish taste when still unripe. Enormous quantities of these are gathered for sale in the various towns, and for exportation ; Eng- land, among other places, taking large consignments ; their name in this country being locust beans. I have often seen them on stalls in Eastern cities, where they are used as food by the very poorest, but chiefly to fatten pigs if there be Christians in the neighbourhood, or for horses and cattle. That they were eaten as human food, though only by the pc/^rest of the poor, in the time of our Lord, is incidentally proved by their being mentioned by both Horace and Juvenal ^ as thus used. The Prodigal very likely drove his herd below the trees, as is still frequently the custom, to let them eat thi pods, which fall off as soon as they are dry. It i^ curious to remember that the bean found in the pod gave its name to the smallest Hebrew weigiit — the gerah, twenty of which made a shekel.^ The monks in the Middle Ages, unwilling to believe that John the Baptist fed upon locusts, came to the 1 Hence the Greek name of the tree, Ktpdrta, from H(piriov="a,]iii\e horn." ' Horace (born B.C. 65, died B.C. 8), Epist., Bk. II., i. 123; Juvenal (bom about A.D. 40, died about a.d. 120), Sat, xi. 58. Bocliart in his Hierozoicon, i. 708, has a very learned article on the carob. 3 Ex. XXX. 13; Lev. xxvii. 25; Eack. xlv. 12. BIBLE. [Chap. IV.] C^ESAREA-ATHLIT. 79 pen a heathen, and abomination to an ee, of a deep <;;reen, s, rising to a height ge apple-tree, makes Iscape of Palestine, iraerable purple-red L and May into lu\ge 5 long, flat, brown, sweetish taste when [■ these are gathered • exportation; Eng- consignments ; their cans. I have often where they are used jfly to fatten pigs if rhood, or for horses human food, though lie time of our Lord, ; mentioned by both The Prodigal very as is still frequently ds, which fall off as remember that the ime to the smallest ' of which made a , unwilling to believe ocusts, came to the roin ktpdriof = " a liHle horn." t., Bk. IL, i. 123; Juvenal t., xi. .58. Bocliart in liis the earob. conclusion that this pod ^ was meant, and gave the tree tlie name of 8t. John's Bread. There can. however, be no doubt that tlio well-known insect was really intended, since it is still eaten extensively by the Arabs and others. " The Bedouins out locusts," says Burckhardt, the greatest of travellers, " which are collected in great quantiti(>s in the beginning of April, when the sexes cohabit, and they are easHy caught. After having been roasted a little on the iron plate on which bread is baked, they are dried in the sun, and then put into large sacks with the mixture of a little salt. They are never served up as a dish, but ever)^ one takes a handful of thorn when hungry. The peasants of Syria do not eat locusts, nor have I myself had an opportunity of tasting them ; there are a few poor fellahs in the Hauran, however, who sometimes, pressed by hunger, make a meal of them ; but they break off the head and take out the entrails before they dry them in the sun. The Bedouins swallow them entire." ^ Writing elsewhere of the Arabs of other regions, he ^iv-s, "All the Bedouins of Arabia, and the inhabitants of tovns in Nejd and Hedjaz, are accustomed to eat locusts. 1 have seen, at Medina and Tayf, locust shops, where these animals were sold by measure. In Egypt and Nubia they are only eaten by the poorest beggars. The Arabs, in preparing them for food, throw them alive into boiling water, with which a good deal of salt has been mixed. After a few minutes they are taken out and dried in the sun ; the head, feet, and wings are then torn off; the bodies are cleansed from the salt and perfectly dried, after which process whole sacks are filled with them by the Bedouin. They are sometimes eaten boiled in butter, and they often contribute materials for a breakfast, when spread over 1 Maundrell : 8th edition, Lend. 1810, p. 124. 2 Burckliardc, Syria, 4to, p. 239. go THE HOLY LAND AND THE BIBLE. [Chap, unloavcnocl bvcMd. mixed Avith butter." Dr. Kitto, who tried locusts, says they taste very much hke shninps. St. John may well have eaten them, since 1"« \'f^' /'^ t''*' wild(>rness le"tt him no source of richer food. W .Id honey he could obtain in abundance from trees and clefts in the rocks. The river Aujeh is the largest stream in the plain ot Sharon, winding across it from beneath the mound of llas-el-Ain— the ancient Antipatris, close to the lulls, which are about ten miles ott', in a straight line. It is strong onou-h to have made a permanent opening through the sand-hills, and is never dammed up by them like some weaker streams on the plain, which become marshes in the dry season, though in winter, when swollen by the rams, they gain force enough to break through again to the sea. A dam over the river turns aside a powerful current, which drives twelve pairs of stones, most of them busy when I passed, grinding Hour for customers. The splash of the water as it fell in white waves from the restless wheels and rushed to join the main stream was delightful in such a climate. The river is perhaps twenty yards broad, and of a good depth. A short distance outside Joppa lies the German village of Sarona, called after the plain in which it stands. On the way we passed two long strings of camels, one laden with oil in black skin bottles from Nablus ; the other with bags of rice from the same town. It was doubtless in similar skin jars, if I may use the word, that King Menahem of Samaria, while professing to be loyal to Assyria, sent gifts of oil to Pharaoh, in Egypt, the hereditary foe of the Assyrian,^ to secure his support. They are made of the entire skin of a he-goat, the places where the legs and tail have been, being carefully » Ho8. xii. 1. Geikie, Hours with the Bible, iv. 265. BIBLE. [Chap. IV.] C^SAREA-ATHLIT. 81 Dr. Kitto, who uch like shrimps. itM' his life in the ood. Wihl honey a and clefts in the 'am in the plain ot ith the mound of e to the hills, which line. It is stron;,' ening through the )y them like some ame marshes in the vollen by the rains, ^h again to the sea. eriul current, which them busy when I The splash of the the restless wheels ,s delightful in such jy yards broad, and the German village lich it stands. On if camels, one laden Nablus; the other 1. It was doubtless be word, that King ling to be loyal to loh, in Egypt, the secure his support. I of a he-goat, the oeen, being carefully « Bible, iv. 265. sewn up, and an opening left at the nock, large enough to form a mouth, f*)r tilling and emptying. To cJialile them to resist cho heat of the sun, and to keep them soft, they are smeared with oil. The German colony is now firmly established and pros- perous, but as many as fifty poor Teutons died before they could be acclimatised. A " town-house " of wood, a wind- mill used for pumping, a town clock, wheeled vehicles, a forge, European ploughs guided by native peasants but drawn by horses, a factory for all kinds of wooden machinery and implements, from waggons to plough- luxndles, a manufactory of tiles and of artificial stone, and other forms of Western energy and skill, showed the difference between Europeans and Asiatics. I rested at the house of one of the chief setters, a large commodious stone building, with a deep well under a shed close by, supplying abundant water, which was raised by oxen in an endless chain of buckets, set in motion by a horizontal wheel ; it is used for household purposes, and for irrigating the garden and contiguous ground. Vines from American plants are extensively grown in the settle- ment, those of the country being liable to disease. A welcome, simple and hearty, was accorded me, and I left for Joppa not a little refreshed by the home-made bread and butter, both excellent, with milk. My friend had some of the local wine, and pronounced it excellent. The sandy road, nowhere " made," was at times pretty rough, in the hollows washed out by winter storms, lied ane- mones, bunches of lupins from la.st year's sowing, and tufts of squills brightened the open ground as we drove on ; but Sharon, at its best, is very far from coming up to English ideas of fertility and beauty. CHAPTER V. THE PHILISTINE PLAIN AND HAMSON'ri CUUNTRY. Lkavino Joppa. v/ith its stnmcro crowds, my last remi- nisconces of it iv.'o nuide up of a confused dream of masons sittinj,^ cross-le-nKl, cluppinf? stones from Ca^sarea, for the new Christian hospital; stone-breakers squatted m ti.e same way across half the market-place, fracturing' obdurate metal in stone mortars, to spread on the road ; strings ot donkeys and camels moving hither or thither, and a general hubbub of buyer and seller filling the air. A four-wheeled vehicle had been hired for my journey : a rough open affair, screened at the roof and sides with canvas to keep ofi the sun. The driver wore a felt skull- cap di! tl ,• ,.usl„iin.,'on th,. K«|.ti,.n c.«vst wl„.nc. -" > J™ '■ ; ,»,rt..a r..r tlM. ary.n-l. traa,. from tho port, ol tlu, M , Ita ' 'I'lH.nce they wanacr-.l north to th. mor,. tnu In «.a.co,.»t phun, of C;«u.u,, which, fron, tlu.ir I-"""; "" ,„.,.,,t attractions for a l<«..ay con,nwr,.,al p.-ph- at L,».'<1 »t """' tho caravan traa.. with Ih.. cast ami sonth, the „.a traac with the wcrt. Ucnc aln.aay m th^ e <.r Abrahan,, tlu'ir kin^ Ahinuacch haa In- «oat at mr. in tin. farthest »,n,th of tin. lan^l, ana hoastca a Ihief :,t his .i,htin« „u.n. ana a cnn.cil b-^^.f '"I;; title.. » In a »ubs«pn.nt ^'oncratn.n, about tht yM BC. Wl».' tho Hebrews wont aown into ^'Wl' • """ which they onlyretnrnea after a resuh.nee of IW juns^ ;; this tine the Vhilistines had ,rown so stron, that (loa wonld not allow His people to p, up to Canaan by ,: direct ana easy caravan rente, still in nse beca^ it wonia have bronRht them into conlhct w,th so wa like a race; but led them by the circn.tous route of the ■*" After the Hebrew conquest of Central I'afcstine, three of the Philistine cities-Kkron, Ascalon and '"-'fTw'! taken in the first enthusiasm of the mvaders, »"d «W f°' a time by Mah, to whom the sea-coast plam had been as Kned by Joshua." They were, however, lost before Sleade/s death,' and henceforth, for 200 years even the name of the race is seldom mentioned m the b.icred Books.' 6 Exod. xiii. 17 J"«"- ^"^^ ^'^ . ,„ ... <, 8 Josh. xiii. 2 ; xv. 45 ; Judg. i. 18 ; ui. «>. J BIBLE. [Chac. inpartdriviiif? tlu'm tlifirtlistrict. Thoy UiTtc, but luul l)n'- lie tj-rritory of tlic \\WWQ suit WHS cx- ,0 ports of the Nile I to the more fruitlul in tlu'ir position, had ncrcial j)copU', as it li the oast ami soiitli, I (MUM', already in the declj had his seat at Uuul, and boasted a nncil beavinj^ stran<,'e ion, abr)ut the year rn into E<,'ypt, irt)m .sidei\ce of VM) years, ^rrown so stron*,' that ) ^'o up to Canaan by , still in use, hecause conllict with so war- jircuitous route of the :!entral Palestine, three calon, and G a/a— were . invaders, and held for a-coast plain had been !, however, lost before b'h, for 200 years, even lentioned in the Sacred id die Biicher Mosh, p. 121. * Riclim, p. 119t)- ; 7 Josh. xiii. 2. r. i. 18 ; ill. 3. •'.-. IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 I.I 1.25 2.0 ^ m m lAO 1.8 U I 1.6 6" Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 \ V \\ %.^ ) r. /^ CIHM/ICMH Microfiche Series. CIHM/ICMH Collection de microfiches. Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions / Institut Canadian de microreproductions historiques ^ v.] THE PHILISTINE PLAIN AND SAMSON'S COUNTRY. 85 That there was a hereditary enmity between them and the Hebrews, appears however in the incidental notice ot one of th,-^ Jud-es-Shamgar-having slain (500 Philistines with the massive ox-goad, shod with iron, still common iu those parts.i But towards the end of the period ot the Jud-es,-^ the history of Samson brings the nation into prominence as the most dangerous and dreaded enemies of Israel, which they continued to be till the reign of Davia, who broke their power so completely that he vas able to form an old and young body-guard-known as the Crethi and Plethi-from among them.« From this time they were only at intervals independent of the Hebrews, and they finally vanished as a people, under the iron sway of the Assyrians. Babylonians, Persians, and Syrians, in succession. , t • ^ The few remains of their language and religion show that this remarkable people were of Semitic race, though coloured to a large extent by Orrecian influences, from their temporary residence in Crete. Fierce and fond of war, they had the genius of military organisation peculiar to the West; always ready with disciplined battalions for any quarrel. Nor were they less keen as traders ; their favourable position on the coast enabling them to become, in some measure, rivals of the Phcenicians. Of their poli- tical constitution we know only that their territory was divided into five small districts, respectively under the chiefs of five cities-FAron, Gath, Ashdod, Ascalon, and Gaza. Of their religion all that has come down to us is that the god Beelzebub was worshipped at Ekroa, Dagon at Gaza and Ashdod,* and. at a later period, the goddess Derketc in Ascalon.' 1 Ju.lgr. iii. 31. ' About B.C. 1250. » 1 Sam. xsx. U; Ezek. xxv. 16; Zeph. u. 5. * 2 KiugH i. 2 ; Judg. xvi. 23; 1 Sum. v. L ' 2 Mticc. xii. 26. 86 THE HOLY LAND AND THE BIBLE. [Cap. The present population of Palesti.ie is, doubtless, larj^^ely represeutative. in the various districts, of the anc.en races of the land, so that Philistine blood in the people o the old Philistine country may perhaps, in part, account for their being much more Egyptian, in their ways and dress, than those around them; the Philistines, as we have seen, having originally come from Crete, through Egypt There were, however, many other nationalities in the land in Joshua's day. The Hittites-possibly a small branch of the mighty Cheta of the Egyptian mo. uments, whose power, at Fts highest, reached from the Grecian Ardiipelago to Carchemish. on the Euphrates-lived in and round Hebron, in the time of Abraham.^ and, in that of Moses among the mountains of Judah and Eplmum, and were tm it existence in the days of E.ra.3 The Girgashi, or '< dwellers on the clay-land." were a tribe otherwise an- known * The Amorites. or " dwellers on the hills, weie nerhaps the greatest of the Canaanite races, one part o CLng 01^ the mountains of Judah;^ which they divided to five ;etty kingdoms ; « another branch on the east o Jordan inL northern part of Moab. divided by hem into the two " kingdoms " of Heshbon and Bashan. It "as of their towns, on the top of the hills, in wha was afterwards Jud^a, that the Hebrew spies spoke as being "walled up to heaven." « Then there were the Canaanites, or " dwellers in the lowlands," that is, the coast, and m the depression of the Jordan. The name was used also, in a wider sense, of the Phoenicians, and from that race being the great business people of the Old World, came after- wards to mean "traders."^ Besides these, we read of the X vien xxiii. ^ Num. xiii. 2i. ; Jo.h. xi. 3 ^ Ezra ix. L 4 ^ ; V 1 " Gen xiv. 7, W; Num. xiii. 29. « Josh, y- 5. Trov. xxxi. 2-t. JIBLE. [OlIAP. doubtless, larj^'oly of the luicient [ in the people of , in part, account in tlii'ir ways and istines, as we have e, through Egypt, uilities in the hind ly a small brunch mo. nments, whose vecian Archipelago 'ed in and round , in that of Moses, Cphraim,^ and were TheGirgashi, or tribe otherwise an- on the hills," were, ! races, one part of 'which they divided jranch, on the east lb, divided by them n and Bashan.'^ It » hills, in what was spies spoke as being A'cre the Canaanites, the coast, and in the e was used also, in from that race being World, came after- hese, we read of the ;. ' Ezra ix. 1. i. 29. ^ Josh. X. 5. iv. 12. * Dout- i. 28. aanites " in the Hfb., so in v.] THE PHILISTINE PLAIN AND SAMSON'S COUNTRY. 87 Porizzites, or " peasants," in contrast to dwj'llers in towns ; the Hivitcs, or " dwellers in villages ; " and the Jebusites, or " threshing-floor people," in allusion, ai)parontly, to the early use of the top of Mount Moriah at Jerusalem as a threshing-floor;! this being the one spot on which we find them. These are spoken of, perhaps in the ag- gregate, as nations "greater and mightier" than the Hebrews at the time of their invasion of Palestine.- But since those early days many additional races have occupied portions of the land, and intermarriages m the course of many ages must have united the blood of a great many nationalities in the veins of the present popu- lation. Asses, laden with cabbages for market, passed us as we drove on from Joppa over a track in tlie hard sand ; some veiled women, also, with baskets of lemons on their heads. They carry everything thus, and owe to their doing so an erectness of carriage which their sisters in the West might well envy. More asses, laden with sand, followed ; women with black veils, girls with milk, i/hich they carry in jars on their shoulder, as they do water. Married women carry their little children thus, in many cases. Some- times, indeed, you meet little children, perhaps still un- weaned, carried by their mother on her hips, just as Isaiah says, "Thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side." ' A Bedouin in a striped " abba " and bright " keh- yeh," or head-shawl, kept in its place by the usual circlet of soft carael's-hair rope going twice round the head : his seat, the hump of a camel ; with other camels carrying back to their villages loads of empty sacks, in which they had taken grain to Joppa or elsewhere, made us next turn aside. The men of to-day thus still carry « 2 Sam. xxiv. 18—23. * Dent. vii. 1. ' Isn. Ix. 4. — a^ *— ''%li) ^ Sut1![i t?it i' ■' 88 THE HOLY LAND AND THE BIBLE. [Chap. their riches on the shoulders of younj? asses, and their treasures upon the bunches of camels, as in the days of Isaiah;! so little have the customs of the East changed, after so manv centuries. Immense mounds of finely broken-up straw for fodder ure to be seen everywhere in Egypt, and this fodder is common, also, in Palestine. Strings of camels passed towards Joppa as we went on, with huge bags of it balanced on each side of their humps. It is the only dry food for horses or cattle in Western Asia, and is largely used, also, in the valley of the Kile. The name given to it is " teben —the same, to-day, as in the days of the patriarchs. When the grain is trampled out on the opeu-air threshing-iloors, by the feet of cattle or bv the sharp stone or iron teeth underneath the threshing-sledge,^ the straw is necessarily broken or cut into very small pieces. These ^ve the " teben " of which we often read in the Bible. Kebekah told Eliezer, Abraham's servant, that her brother had both '« teben and provender "^ for his camels. The children of ■ Israel in Egypt were refused " teben " to mix with the clay of the bricks they had to raake.^ The Levite^saw abundance of " teben and provender for his asses " in Gibeah, though so inhospitably received.'* Barley and "teben" had to be provided by the rural community for the common horses, and also for those of a swifter and finer breed, belonging to Solomon.^ The wicked, says Job, are " as teben before the wind, and as chaff' that the storm carrieth away."^ Leviathan is said to esteem "iron as teben, and brass as rotten wood."« In the days of the 1 Isa. XXX. 6. » D<"«t- «^'- *! I^"- ''"• ^^• s Gen. xxiv. 25. 4 jjjj y 7, » Jndg. xix. 19. I Kiiiga iv. 28. For '* dromcdarios," road as in the tcit. ' Job xxi. 18. 8 Job xli. 27. BIBLE. [Chap. g asses, and their as in the days of the East changed, ip straw for fodder and this fodder is mels passed towards it balanced on each \f food for horses or r used, also, in the it is " teben "—the riarchs. When the lir threshing-iloors, stone or iron teeth straw is necessarily ;s. These are the le Bible. Rebekah er brother had both Is. The children of I " to mix with the .■^ The Levite saw r for his asses " in jived.'* Barley and rural community for of a swifter and finer ncked, says Job, are haff' that the storm to esteem " iron as In the days of the XV. 4; Isa. xli. 15. ix. 19. oad as in the tcit. v.] THE PHILISTINE PLAIN AND SAMSONS COINTRY. 89 Messiah " the lion shall eat teben like the ox."' The Word of God by His true pro])h('ts, we road in .Jeremiah, wa.s as difi'erent from the utterances of the false prophets as "teben is from wheat."' Thus the camel-loads that made me swerve aside throw light on a good many verses of Scripture. The drifting sand from the shore is playing sad havoc with the Philistine plain. Immediately south of Joppa it reaches a distance of four miles inland. Towards the sea, these dunes or sand-hills present a very gentle slope, but on the land side they are much .steeper, so that as the sea-wind blows the loose grains over the crest, they roll, by imperceptible degrees, farther and farther afield, gradually overwhelming gardens, orchards, and ploughed land, and, of course, under the Turk, nothing is done to stay their progress. The road led straight south, along these yellow desolations ; the telegraph wires to Egypt running at its side. Six or seven miles from Joppa I crossed the Rubin, which, when I passed, had a very small stream in its bed, linking together some almost stagnant pools, fed by springs in the wady, near the hills. On the shore, on a line with Ramleh, but out of sight from the road, lay Minet Rubin, the ancient port for Jamnia, with some vines and a few mulberries growing wild in the sand, which here probably is not deep. But there is no longer any harbour at this place, though ancient tombs in the rocks speak of a large resident population in past ages. Yabneh, the ancient Jamnia, lies on the west side of the Rubin, the course of which I crossed by a low bridge of two arches. Springs in the river-bed cause it to be always in full flow at its mouth ; the Palestine Surveyors 1 Isa, xL 7 J IxT. 25. ' Jer. xxiii. 28. eo THE HOLY LAND AND THE BIBLE. [Chap. • A 4^ ,-.,vrl« -VCrOSS WAT tllG SOa, DUt ".''™ ,?' Mav S7? At . iunm., 1-w.v.r, the d.anncl foi-auUe m May, l^7''- ' , j^ ,,,^„ eut quito » '» -"'^ ''^^'Virtof ; aX i;.'",,; „..-t, ™,r,.>,y, with vavnu. across tl.c ho 1 , ^.j^^^ ,^^^ ^ j,„p„,„. „,,d, a,„ n,sh.. .^ t -^^ ^,,^ ,.„,„„, p,„uioo on the top ot a '"« S-'-;; "':,,",, :a,,a bordered by a Standing apart trou, t » ^j. ^^^^,_^^^ .^ !''"f r" ''Tm"tu. vo?y 'eiures,,„o. Some wells and ,„„Us f-" »J; ^" ^^1 L„k,. duly repaired eaeh year. ^Slfnt an plaees in Palestine l,...y old. In Joshua's day it was ^^^;2ZJ:^^^^ rC^'l-rSstrCv^ver Uept poss.^^^^^^^^^^^ ol IJan. i»^ . , , ,1- ;t and broke down its walls, it till King U/...ah '""\ * "'^^^'^„ ,, s„„on Maeca- At a later date rt was again taken y ^^^ bams.* and renia ned in ^J^^^^^, A few Ponipey g^ve it baek to 'J^'-"- J;.^ j„ j^ ^ order o£ years later, a large -k-ny - t^;» f ^^,^^ ^^^^ ,,„„aed the Roman «»7'-™' "'^^'j^; Wore Christ, to Herod over by Augustus tl"rty JJ^ ^ , ., ,,„, ^ his sister the Great, from wlioin ' P f ;t\ Livia, the wite of Salome; she in tu „ ^;''™;„„,„„„ities handed over by Augustus. So I'sW'y ";'\;; i„ t,,o.e good old days! one royal personage to another in „ ^^^^^ ^.^^ It had now S7";;'»:^,t :Ule to P"* «.<>"» -» r:~:tn.::erortlie Je«s, who formed a l^ge ,1 » Josh. xix. 43 ; Jos. Ant, v. 1, 22. 1 Josh. XV. 11. j^2. ' B.C. 63. 3 2 Cbron. xxvi. 6. bc- ^'*^- BIBLE. [Chap. is near the soa, but wever, the channel I it has cut quite a parts mar.hy, with illa^'e has a popuUi- picuous position on 3S from the shore. , and bordered by a tields of vetches, it e. Some wells and repaired each year, te, which was once a ine, is very old. In eel/ and along with 1 to the Hebrew tribe ', kept possession of ■olce down its walls, n, by Simon Macca- Is of the Jews till . population.^ A few erred to it by order of it was finally handed fore Christ, to Herod f his will, to his sister to Livia, the wife of unities handed over by those good old days I is said, no doubt with able to put 40,000 men ws, who formed a large 43 ; Jos. Ant, V. 1, 22. 142. * B.O. 63. V.l THE PHILISTINE PLAIN AND SAMrfONS COUNTRV. !•! part of the comnninily, caused much friction between them and their heathen fellow-citizens. At the breaking-out of the last Jewish war, Janinia received ix'rmission from Titus to give a home to tlie members of the IJabl inieal College of Jerusalem, aiul it thus became a famous seat of Jewish learning ; but it gradually sank in after-times, till it has become the in- significant i)lace it now is. It was with a strange feeling that one looked on the miserable collection of mud houses of which it at present consists, and thought that hero the great insurrection of IJarcochba— " the Scm of a Star"— was planned by the Uabbis, in their despair at the edict by which Hadrian decreed the suppression of Judaism and took their power from the hands of its teaeliers. Everywhere throughout the Empire the Jews had been restlessly plotting and rising against the liomans for two generations, till even Hadrian, who had shown them favour at the opening of his reign, grew fierce against them ; ordered the site of Jerusalem to receive a heathen name— iElia Capitolina— and drove the ploughshare over the ruins of the Temple, as a sign that it should never be rebuilt • even forbidding any Jew so much as to approach the circuit of the Holy City. But the hope of a Messiah, who should give the victory to the ancient people of God over all their enemies, still burned in the breast of every Israelite, and the hour brought with it the man to kindle these hopes to a flame. Appealing to the prophecy of Balaam, Barcochba, appa- rently hitherto unknown, gave himself out as tiie star that was to come from Jacob, "to smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Seth." ^ and acquired for- midable power. Rabbi Akiba, a great name among the Jews, accepted him as the Messiah, and became his • Num. xxiv. 17. THE HOLY LAND AND THE BIBLE. [{'HAI'. armnur-l)oarcr. The tinu' predicted by Hiifrf^ai was sup- posed to have come, when Jehovah would " shake tlio heavens and the earth, and overthrow the throne of kin<(- donis, and d(>stroy the stren«,'th of the kin«,'doms of the IJarcochhu was to be the Kedeenierof Israel, len. heatl wlio shotdd free its sons from the bondaj^e of Koine. In- surrection broke out at once. The new Messiali nuist have been a fierce fanatic, for he demanded that everyone who wished to follow him should submit to have one of his linj,'ers chopped oil' as a test of his resolution ; that circumcision should be repeated on all who had imper- fectly obeyed the rite, and that the Jewish towns should be fortified— the one reasonable measure of the three! Accordinjr to the llabbis, 2()0,0()() men, each with a fins,'er hewn off, followed him, and as many more, un- wiilin<; to endure this test, a<,n-eed that they would dra«r up by the roots a cedar of Lebanon as a pledn;e of theii spirit. Fifty strong,' places, and nearly 1,000 villajjfes, were taken from the Romans, and it took three years and a half for Hadrian to quell the terrible risinj,'. Bether, the chief fortress of the revolted Hebrews, held out for a whole year. The number who perished was reckoned at half a million, and the exasperation at the failure of the movement was so great that Barcochba's name— " the Son of a Star"— was changed by the survivors to Bar Cosiba— " the Son of a Lie."^ This terrible narrative shows very forcibly the ideas of the Messiah prevalent in the days of Christ. It was to make Him such a king as Barcochba that the multitude wished to lay hold on the Saviour and put Him at their head,^ after the miracle of the Loaves and Fishes at the » Hngg. ii. 21. , • i 9 A very full acconnt of Barcochba's revolt is given from a Jewish point of view in Hamburger's Heal Encyct., ii. 85 ff. =■ John tI. 15. J [E BIBLE. [Chap. by Hagf.jai was sup- 1 would " slmke the ■ the tliroiu! of kin^'- tlu' kini^doius of tlio e Kcclccincr of Israel, nclairo of Homo. In- ( now Mossiah nuist landed that ovoryono ubniit to havo one of ' his resolution ; that all who had imper- Jowish towns should easuro of the throe ! ) men, each with a as many more, uu- that thoy would dra^' as a j)ledge of their nearly 1,000 villa<,'es, , took throe years and rible risin«^. Bother, jbrews, held out for a shed was reckoned at at the failure of the 2oehba's name — " the the survivors to Bar ?ry forcibly the ideas ys of Christ. It was iba that the multitude and put Him at their ves and Fishes at the is giveu f r om a Jewish point v.] THE nilLISTINE PLAIN AND SAMSON'S COUNTRY. M hoad of the Lake of (hililoe, and it was b.>cause He would not load a -roat risin- a-ainst Hcnje that His country- men finally rejected Him. Jamnia is only four miles and a half from a famous sit,._Hkron, one of the chief t..wns of the Ph.l.stinos. now called Akir. Near it, am..n- the hills ovorhan-.n- the plain, is the re-ion of Samson's exploits and of s..nio notable incidents in the life of David, which could not be more conveniently visited than from this point, thou-h horses, not wheels, are required in the uplands. Kkron is now only a mud hamlet on lowrisint,' -round, with giivdons hed-od with prickly p.-ar, and a well on tli(> north. Cisterns, empty or tenanted by birds, th(> stones of hand-mills, two marble columns, and a stone press, are the only ancient remains to be seen, for the Ekron of the Jiible was probably built, like the present vih.-f?e of unburnt bricks, whicb a few years reduce to dust. One of the two marble pillars still visible forms the top of the ^niteway leading into a very humble village mosque. Many of the inhabitants keep bees ; groat jars closed up at the mouth with clay, except a little entrance, serving for hives, as, indeed, is the custom generally in Palestine. Sheepskin cloaks, the fleece inside, are worn by a number of the villagers, to protect them from chill in the early morning or through the night, the contrast between the heat of the day and the cold of these hours being very cvreat as of old with Jacob in Mesopotamia. Ekron means «' barren," perhaps because, although the r:ch corn- lands of the plain lie just below, the place itself stands on one of a long series of sandy, uncultivated swells, which, in this part, reach from the hills to the sea-coast This the most northern of the five Philistine cities, was assigned by Joshua to the tribe of Judah.'^ but after- iSeo««.-'-" >**•■■■■' 94 THK IlOliY LAND ANO TIIM IJIIU.H. [ClIAP. wards t.» tliiit, of Dan,' tliouLrli, in the ond, Jiidah tot.k it and lor a time held it. ' At the close of tlu> ju'i-ioil of the .lud^'cs, liovvevt'i", it was a«;ain a IMiilistiiie town, and is futnons hccausi- tlic Ark, when tiikon from tho Ildji-cws, ri'stt'd in it for a tinx'.'* In connection with tins incident it is striking' to lind that tho two i)la;;nes inllieted on the rhilistines for detaining; the sacred chest are still anioni; the number of local visitations ; the hahits of the people leading' very oitcn to the internal tumours called emerods in the Scripture narrative, and armies of <;eld-niice not unfreciuently rava<,'in^ tho crops. Tho d» structiveness of these pests in the East is, indeed, often very j,'reat. A friend of Dr. van Lennej) •* inlornu'd him that, one year, in Asia Minor, he " saw tho depredations committed by an immense army of ludd-mico, which ])assed over the f^round like an army of youn<,' locusts. Fields of stand, ing corn and barley disappeared in an incredibly short time, and as ibr vines and mulberry-trees, they were gnawed at tho roots and sjjeedily prostrated. Tho an- nual produce of a farm of 150 acres, which promised to be unusually large, was thus utterly consumed, and the neighbouring farms suffered equally." It was in all pro- bability a visitation of these mice by which the Philistines were harassed, though, indeed, there is a choice of creatures of this class in Talestine, which boasts no fewer than twenty-three varieties of the genus.* It is now over 3,700 years since a solemn deputa- tion arrived in Ekron from King Ahaziah of Samaria,^ son of Ahab, to consult the local god, who bore the ominous name of Beelzebub, or, to write it more correctly, > Josh. xix. 43. » Judg. i. 18 ; 1 Sam. vii. U. » 1 Sam. V. 10. * Van Lonnep, Bible Lands, p. 2S5. » TriHtrniii, Nat. Hist, of the Bible : art. " Mouho." « B.C. b'JT-SyS. IE BlDLl}. (Chap. V.l THR PfnrjSTTN'E PLAIN" tUMSON'R COUNTRY. M 10 I'ud, Judiih took it i> of tlio jM'riod of the lilistiiic t«)wn, aiul is n from the Ilt'hi*»'\vs, ion with tlii.s incident iii,'n('S inlli<'t('d on the (du'st lire still anion",' > liilljits of the people iniours called enierods nies of 'a'ld-niicc not riie d» strnctivoness of often very great. A 'd hitn that, one year, 'dations eonunitted by khich ])assed over the sts. Fields of stand- in an incredibly short jerry-trees, they were prostrated. The an- es, which promised to ly consnmed, and the y." It was in all pro- y^ which the Philistines is a choice of creatures boasts no fewer than 5 ince a solemn deputa- Ahaziah of Samaria,* il god, who bore the write it more correctly, 8 ; 1 Sam. vii. 14. nep, Bible Lniida,]^. 2S5. .• art. " MouHo." Hiial-zebnh— the "Lord of Flies *'— a title of the siuj- god, us controller of the swiirniing insect world. Kli<'s are ut all times a st'vere trial in the h«)t months in the Mast, but occasionally they become almost unendurable. That tliey were eijually troublesome in antitjuity is shown by .Judith being said to have pulled aside the moscpiiti) cur- tains on the bed of llolofernes, when she was about to kill him.' In the Jordan valley the tlocks and cattle are in great dread of a species of blood-sucking horse-llies, to escape from which tlu! shepherds and herdsmen drive them to higher and colder levels, where thes(> ])lagues are not Ibund. Even the wild animals are ecpudly tor- mented by these insects, and lice to elevations where they are safe Irom them. Cases are also known, for example in the region of Nazart'th, where immense swarms of small black Hies darken the air, and cannot be kept out of the mouth and nostrils ; their numbers at times breaking up an Arab encami)ment, since even smoke and flame are hardly able to drive them away.- In the ]}ible the word " Zebub " is used twice : in the passage, " Dead llies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savour,"'' and when Isaiah says that "the Lord shall hiss for the fly that is in the utter- most part of the rivers of Egypt," "^ that is. He shall make a Bound like that which men use to attract and lead to the hive a swarm of bees ; thus bringing from all the canals and waters of Egypt the fly which in summer is found near them in such clouds. Both on the Nile and in Palestine the common fly is met with in myriads, and, by carrying infectious matter on its feet, induces, when it lights, as it constantly does, on the coi-ners of the eyes, ' Jnditli xiii. 9. Greek, Kwvwirtioi' . In Liddell and Scott, "a bud with mosquito curtains." " Rielun, p. 445. * Ecclos. x. 1. ■• lua. vii. 18. «Tifift>-Tr ■'■^■^-^— ■'- — -°— 96 THE HOLY LAND AND THE BIBLE. [Chap. purulent ophthalmia, the curse oE both countries. Thoy also draw blood by their bites, and produce festering sores, and they swarm to such an extent that any article of food Dot carefully covered is made useless by them in a few minutes. Some authorities even think that the words of Isaiah respecting the country on the Upper Nile, the «' land of the shadowing wings," ^ refer to the vast swarms of flies in those parts. But poor Ahaziah had more serious matters to trouble him than Eastern lly-swarms, when his embassy appeared in the narrow streets of Ekron, so long ago. He had fallen through an upper lattice- of his house and feared he was dying. The god Beelzebub had a great name for revealing the future. Would the sufferer live or die ? The fame of the local oracle must have been very high, not only then, but in later times, since Beelzebub had, by Christ's day, come to be recognised as the chief of the heathen gods of Palestine, or, as the Jews put it, the " prince of the devils : " " a use of the name which has, among Christians, made it equivalent to that of the arch- enemy himself. East of Ekron, wliich itself is 200 feet above the sea, the land rises in successive ridges to that of Tell Jezer, which stands up in prominent isolation 750 feet above the Mediterranean, at a distance of about fourteen miles from it and six from Ekron. Part of these uplands bears corn, round the small villages of Naaneh and El-Mansurah, the former— once Naamah, near Makkedah— where Joshua put to death the five kings after the vout of Bethhoron.^ The rest is a barren reach of half-consolidated sand, without water. Below the swelling ground of the low hills the soil is rich, but only partially cultivated, and the I Isa. xviii. 1. * Matt. ix. 34 ; xii. 24 ; Mark iii. 22. » Josh. X. 10 ; XT. 41. THE BIBLE. [Chap. | V.] THE PHILISTINE PLAIN AND SAMSON'S COUNTRY. 97 rising slopes themselves are the haunts of small encamp- meuts of wandering Bedouins. The ancient fertility of the liills has in fact been greatly diminished by the want of population, the terraces on which vineyards and orchards were planted being left to fall into ruin, so that the rich soil has to a large extent been washed away, leaving only tiie bare rock. In 1S74 the long-lost royal Canaanite city of Gezor was strangely re-discovered by M. Clennont-Ganneau in this hitherto unsuspected region. Finding it stated in an old Arab chronicle, in an account of a petty battle fought in this neighbourhood, that the shouts of the com- batants were heard both at the village of Khulda and Tell- el.Jezer — " the Hill of Gezer " — he came to this spot, to see if he could justify his idea that the latter was really the site of the long-forgotten city. Learning from some peasants that a rude inscription was to be seen at one point, cut deeply into the natural rock, he sought it out, and to his dehght found that it was in Hebrew, and read " Boundary of Gezer." The letters are supposed to be as old as the Maccabsean age— the second century before Christ — and seem to leave no doubt that Gezer has actually come once more to light. As in many other cases, a Mahommedan tomb crowns the hill, marking it out for a long distance in every direction. The Tell, that is, mound, or hill, is long and irregular in shape, with terraces at the sides, supported by a great wall of large unhewn blocks of stone. Near the eastern end is a raised square platform of earth, about 200 feet each way, con- taining similar blocks. This is all that is now left of the once populous city. A fine spring on the east must have supplied it abundantly with water, while the plain below stretches out in rich corn-fields to the sand-hills near the sea. If it was hard for the citizens to climb to their lofty H both countries. They 1 produce festering sores, ; that any article of food seless by tliem in a few I think that the words of on the Upper Nile, the refer to the vast swarms erious matters to trouble lien his embassy appeared so long ago. He had of his house and feared jebub had a great name uld the sufferer live or Lcle must have been very er times, since Beelzebub le recognised as the chief }, or, as the Jews put it, ,se of the name which has, alent to that of the arch- is 200 feet above the sea, res to that of Tell Jezer, iolation 750 feet above the about fourteen miles from E these uplands bears corn, leh and El-Mansurah, the ^akkedah — where Joshua iY the vout of Bethhoron.^ 3f half-consolidated sand, relliug ground of the low artially cultivated, and the , 34 ; xii. 24 ; Mark iii. 22. XV. 41. 1 5" V { 98 THE HOLY LAND AND THE BIBLE. [Chap. home, the view from it well repaid them wher it was reached, for the pUiin of Sharon to the north, with Lydda, and doubtless, in those days, many other towns or villages, and the great Philistine plain to the south, with its vary- in^r surface and its bu Rosenmiiller, A. u. N. Morgmland, iii. 46. s Tristram, Nat. Hwt. Bible, p. 324. ' Land and Book, p. 566. * Tristram, Nat. Hid. Bible, p. 117. » Judg. xviii. 4 ; Josh. xv. 32 ; xix. 6 ; 2 Kinps xv. 25. • Riehm, p. 338. ^ Ju*lg- "i*^- H- t 102 THE HOLY LAND AND THE BIBLE. [Chap. the close of the week husband and wife find themselves once more poor hard-working peasants.^ That the whole party at Samson's wedding were little better than peasants is clear from their distress at the thought of losing a shirt and an outer tunic apiece. " Have you invited us." was their taunt to the bride, " only to take from us our pro- perty ? '"^ Marriage feasts often end now. as they did m this case, in quarrels and even bloodshed. Samson's revenge for his wife being stolen from him and married to another man took, as we may remember a form strange to Western ideas, and yet this too, on the spot must have seemed quite in keeping with local ways and circumstances. The great valley of Sorek, with its broad swells of rich land stretching away, wave on wave, and the slopes of the distant hills at its sides, must have been covered for many miles in every direction with a sea of corn, which in the hot summer, as harvest ap- proached, would be like so much tinder. Any one who has travelled in Palestine at this season must have noticed the rigorous precautions taken against a conflagration, so certain to be widely disastrous where no walls or hedges separate the fields ; there being great danger, in fact, of the flames spreading over the whole landscape. It would be easy for Samson to get any number of jackals, by the abundant help he could command as a local hero, if not already "judge." The howls of these animals by night, in every part of Palestine, show how common they are even now, and in Samson's time they must have been much more so, as dift'erent places bore names given from the numbers of these pests in their neighbourhood. We have "the Land of Shual "3— that is, "the Jackal Country " » Dr. J. G. Welstein in Delitzsch's Hoheslied. p. 162 tf. « Judg. xiv. 16. ' 1 Sam. xiii. 17. [E BIBLE. [Chap. wife find themselves ts.i That the whole J better than peasants light of losing a shirt you invited us," was ake from us our pro- d now, as they did in shed. liner stolen from him s we may remember, a 1 yet this too, on the eping with local ways ley of Sorek, with its away, wave on wave, it its sides, must have every direction with immer, as harvest ap- tinder. Any one who ison must have noticed linst a conflagration, so lere no walls or hedges it danger, in fact, of the tidscape. It would be iber of jackals, by the 1 as a local hero, if not ;hese animals by night, how common they are they must have been aore names given from ir neighbourhood. We s, "the Jackal Country " 9 Hoheslied, p. 162 tf. » 1 Sam. xiii. 17. v.] THE PHILISTINE PLAIN AND SAMSON'S COUNTRY. 103 —apparently near to Bethel ; Hazar-shual, or " Jackal Town,"i and Shaalabbin— " the City of Jackals "—a town of Dan, Samson's own tribe.*^ For Maralah,^ in Zebulon, on the north, the Syriac, moreover, reads, " the Hill of Jackals." Indeed, the constant mention of snares, nets, pits, &c., in the 13ible, shows that wild creatures of all kinds must have been much more numerous than they now are, though some kinds, jackals among them, still abound. Looking down to the south from Zorah, the site of Bethshemesh, to which the lowing kiue dragged the cart on which had been put the sacred ark of the Hebrews, is in full view. It is two miles from Zorah, and lies about 250 feet lower. Heaps of stones, and ruined walls that seem modern, speak of a former village, while foundations and walls of good nnsonry, apparently more ancient, mark a low swell to the west. Add to these some rock-cut tombs, half buried ; a few clives to the east ; a tomb of some un- known Mussulman saint — and you have all that remains of Bethshemesh, unless you include a set of dry stone huts, with roofs of boughs, for shelter to harvestmen in the reap- ing season. The old name, which means " the House of the Sun," is now changed to"Ain Sliems," "the Fountain of the Sun "—living water being found in the valley below. Both point to the Philistine sun-worship, and both names are fitting, for every sun " house " or temple needed, like all other ancient sanctuaries, a fountain near it, to supply water for ablutions and libations. The village looks down the wide valley of Sorek, which trends to the north-east, so that the men of Bethshemesh, then busy reaping their » Josh. XV. 28 ; xix. 3 ; 1 Cliron. iv. 28 ; Neh. xi. 27. " Josh. xix. 42. 8 Josh. xix. 11. See the whole subject treated with wouderfiil learning in Eochart's Jlierozoicon, p. 854 ff. 1 Ml 104 THE HOLY LAND AND THE BIBLE. [Chap. V. wheat, could see from afar the kine dragj^'ing the cart with the ark^ towards them, up tlie rough track from Ekron. Their little hill-town, like Zorah, was a frontier settlement of the Hebrews in those days, and right glad must all hearts have been to welcome the national palladium once more among its own people. » 1 Sam. vi. 12 fP. THE BIBLE. [OlIAP. V. D dragging tbo cart with High track from Ekron. ivas a frontier settlement ad right glad must all national palladium once CHAPTEll VI. LOCALITIES FAMOUS IN DAVID'S LIFE, About four miles to the south, over the hills, we pass from Samson's country to a district famous in the history of David. An old Roman road leads part of the way ; for indeed such roads run in all directions through these hills, as the English roads run through the Scotch Highlands ; the first object of the conquerors having been to secure order and quiet in the land. When this faint trace of a road fails, a track leads to the Wady es Sunt, which is no other than the valley of Elah,i the scene of David's memorable conflict with the gigantic Goliath.*^ Saul had inarched down with his militia from Benjamin, by one of the lines of valleys afterwards utilised for various Roman roads from the mountains to the sea-plain, and had en- camped on the low hills bordering the Wady es Sunt— or "the Valley of the Acacia." Meanwhile the Philis- tines were marshalled at Ephes - Dammin, on the other side of the valley, down the centre of which ran a deep ravine cut by winter torrents, forming a small wady within the greater. The rival armies covered the opposing slopes; the natural trench in the middle forming a barrier between them. For forty days the Philistine champion had ad- vanced from the west side, his huge lance in his hand, his brazen helmet and armour glittering in the sun, and 1 1 Sam. ivii. 2. ' 1 Sam. xvii. 4. 106 THE HOLY LAND AND THE BIBLE. [CltAP. Il liiid shoutod his clmllcn^'o to the Hchrews, without anyone venturing to accept it. On the fortietli day, however, a mere stripling'. h)vv of stature, but of fine features, and with only the conunon coat or hlouse of a sliepherd-boy, made his way towards hin» from across the valley, with nothint; in his hands but a shepherd's stat!" and a goat's- hair sHug. The indignation of the haughty warrior at the approach of such an adversary was unbounded. Was he a dog that a boy should come to him with a stick ? Stormy curses on so poor a foe, showered forth in the name of all his gods, relieved his fury. But David knew his own purpose, which was no less than an inspiration of genius. Accustomed, as a shepherd-lad, to the sling, so that he could hit any object with it, never missing, he would stun the Philistine with a pebble hurled full force at his forehead, and then kill him before he recovered consciousness. Slings are still in use among shepherds ni Palestine, not only to drive off wild animals but to guide their flocks. A stone cast on this side or that, before or behind, drives the sheep or goats as the shepherd wishes. It was the familiar weapon of hunters,^ and also of light- armed fighting men,2 especially among the Benjamites, whose skill was famous.^* A good slinger could hit at 000 paces," and hence at a short distance the force of the blow given must have been very great. The terrible whiz of a sling-stone, and the distance it flew, have, in- deed, made it a symbol of final and wrathful rejection by God. " The souls of thy enemies," said the politic Abigail to David himself, at a later period, " shall Jehovah sling out, as out of the middle of a sling.'"> Trusting lu his God, the brave boy picked up five pebbles from 1 Job xli. 28. » 2 CLrou. xxvi. 14. 8 Jiulg. XX. 16 ; 1 Cliron. xii. 2. ♦ Riehin, p. 141U. » 1 Sam. XXV. 29. Ik. IE BIBLE. [Chap. VI.] LOCALITIES FAAIOUS IN DAVIDS LIFE. lo; )ro\vs, without anyone •tietli (lay, however, a o£ fine features, and w of a sijepherd-boy, •ross the valley, witli I's stat!" and a goat's- haut,'hty warrior at uiH unbounded. Was to him with a sticic ? howered fortli iix the iry. But David knew than an inspiration of d-kd, to the slin^', so it, never missing, he ebble hurled full foree Q before he recovered se among shepherds in 1 animals but to guide side or that, before or s the shepherd wishes. ters,^ and also of light- mong the Benjamites, •d slinger could hit at ; distance the force of ry great. The terrible jtance it flew, have, in- id wrathful rejection by said the politic Abigail ., " shall Jehovah sling sling."' Trusting iu up five pebbles from XX. 16 ; 1 Chron. xii. 2. 1, p. 1410. 19. the bed of the water-course, when he had made his way down its sti-ep side, an shouhl he found. f.)r »t was near the royal eity of AduUam, and the ruins on tlie hill- top may well be those of that place.- Her.' then. ai)pa- rently, it was that there ^Mthered round David " everyotie that was in distress, and everyone that was in debt, and everyone that was discontented :"=' a motley crew out of which to create a reliable force. The road lr.)m Hebron to the plains passes the hill, winding' aloii^r the valley of Klah, here called Wady es Sir from the side of which the hill of AduUam rises, the road continuing,' down the valley, which is called Wady es Sunt from Socoh to the plains. Other v.ads trend oil in different directions, marking Aid-el-Ma as an important centre of co- munication in former ages. \ cave which completes the identification exists in the hill which in fact is pierced by many natural caverns^ It is not necessary to suppose that the one used by David was of great size, for such spacious recesses are avoided by the peasantry even now, from their dampness and tendency to cause fever. Their darkness, moreover, needs many lights, and they are disliked from the numbers of scorpions and bats frequenting them. The caves used as human habitations, at least in summer, are generally about twenty or thirty paces across, lighted by the sun, and comparatively dry. I have often seen such places with their roofs blackened by smoke : families lodging in one goats, cattle, and sheep stabled in another, and grain or straw stored in a third. At AduUam ther. are two • Ttmt Work in Paledine, p. 277. » Jos. Ant., vi. 12. 3. » 1 Sam. xxii. 2. E UliU.H. ICllAP. VI. I LOCALITIKH FAMOUS IN DAVHVH lAVhl luf> tr()nj,'h(»l(l. nro other ( iminc «»l' AiU8 recesses are avoided n their dampness and rkness, moreover, needs ed from the numbers hem. The caves used summer, are generally )ss, lighted by the sun, aften seen such places ke : families lodging in d in another, and grain Adullam there are two * Jo8. Ant., vi. 12, 3. such caves on the northern slope ol" the hill, and anitther I'iirllier st.uth, while the opposite sides of the tributary valley an^ lined with rows of caves, all smoke-blackened, and mostly inhabited, or used as pens for Hocks iind herds. Tile cave on the south of the hill itself was tenant«'p ravine of the winter ddle of the valley. The d on both sides of the rery desolate; but they to have once been in- :en cisterns are frequent in its usual abundance features to be seen, ute lay down the broad turned from the Wady es hour the path lay over •isome oni „„ ■f for the time. Men on mes; and a peasant who Jiomraedan— hurled curses > notice. y to a height of 095 feet ■rn edge : a lofty watch - iition of fatal importance 114 THE HOLT LAND AND THE BIBLE. [Chap. "^'^\nXTh^r l; tU^Ps^l-, " He In Le """"' «:' tbe wSri™d'of God', wrath wiU carry off rlled^^ Istlwind earri. away both the burn.ng »d t^^e yet unkindled thorns, before tl<« Pots have dt their teat which, with such swiftly-kindb«g J-^'. «'?y their neat, wuic. , thorns, bright would do almost at once, me nre oi ,,..,'!, compass the sacrea write ^rackUns of thorns fool, says Eccle^astes, is^i^e tte ^^f^ ^„„ r t:^! of L:: if one corner' to keep alight the Lrfire In a couniry like Palestine, moreover, it is a vetly custom to «et fire to the thorns on the plains and V,m sides after the harvest has been secured, jnst as the ta tb-nea on our own hUl-sides to c^ar tte ground »„d enrich the soil with the wood-ashes. A time ' Ex. xxii. 6. 2 Ps. Iviii. 9. » Ps. cxviii. 12. * Eccles. vii. 6. HE BIBLE. [Chap. VI.] LOCALITIES FAMOUS IN DAVID'S LIFE. lid in thorny vegetation, Ding left undeveloped ligh temperature ; for When dry they are fact everything is in Hebrews knew to their lusions to their being re. " Before your pots almist, " He shall take dth a whirlwind, both rerse which apparently I's wrath will carry off away both the burning fore the pots have felt ftly-kindling fuel, they 5 fire of thorns, bright ig and quenched if fresh comparison for the fate the Psalms, are said to 3 The laughter of the bhe crackling of thorns mt you are pretty sure arner to keep alight the lestine, moreover, it is a thorns on the plains and been secured, just as the sides, to clear the ground wood-ashes. A time is and blows from a direc- flames dangerously, and rati. - which soon extends b with a wild brightness. 3 Ps. cxviii. 12. * Eccles. vii. 6. Wherever a tent is pitched in the open wilderness, fires of thorns are speedily ablaze after sunset, at once to give heat, to shed light, of which Easterns are passionately fond, and to scare away thieves and wild animals. It is a terrible picture of swift and helpless destruction when Nahum says of the Assyrians, " While they be folden to- gether as thorns, and while they are drunken as drunkards, they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry." ^ In many parts thorns are so matted and tangled together as to be impenetrable. The Assyrians might boast of being unapproachable, like these ; they might boast in their cups that no power could harm them, yet they would be no more before the flames of the wrath of Jehovah than stubble or thorns withered to tinder by the sun.^ The enactment of Moses alluded to on the preceding page, that " if fire break out, and catch in thorns, so that the stacks of corn, or the standing corn, or the field, be consumed therewith, he that kindled the fire shall surely make restitution,"^ refers to other uses of these plants. In ancient times thorns were often made into hedges round gardens near towns, as they still are,^ and they grow wild, not only round all patches of grain in the open country, but largely, too, among them. Watchmen are kept, as harvest approaches, with the duty of guarding against fire as one of their chief cares. With the thorns, dry, tall weeds and grass are intermingled, and a spark falling on these sweeps the whole into a flame to which the ripe grain can offer no resistance, being itself inflammable as tinder. Moses required only restitution of the value destroyed, but the Arabs of the present day are riot so lenient. " In returning to Tiberias," says Burckhardt, " I was several times repri- manded by my guide for not taking care of the lighted » Nah. i. 10. '•' Geikie, Hours with the Bible, v. p. 118. I 2 ' Ex. xxii. 6. * Ecclus. xxviii. 21. ..-^-.-^ THE HOLY LAND AND THE BIBLE. [CHAP. VI. J lie tobacco tlmt fell fn.m my pipe. Tl.c whole of the n,mm- tlin i, thickly covered with dry Rr»»», wh.ch readdy t,,kes fl nd the slightest breath of air instantly spreads he : .H ,"rat on far'over the country, to tl. great r,sk of ho PC atfs harvest. The Arabs who inbab.t *« ™"«y ""^''^ ;aan invariably put to death the P«7J^- ■^""2" .„ have been even the innocent cause of fl .ng the grass 1 they have .nade a public 1«« an,ong themselves that :! in'the height of intestine warfare no o^e sh U at^ t„,„nt to set an enemy's country on hre. Une evemn w t a^^Tiberias I saw'a large Are on «- oppos.t-, e „. the lake, which spread with great -loc.ty fc^ two days, till its progress was checked by the Wady Fe.k. -r evening passed ^^f^^^^ Z^. rdtllttysdr^rsafrif f.l been m myow„ house One ould fancy that our Divine Master mus often have passed the evening in just such a house : the mud difan or bench along the wall. His seat, as it was Z-s »d the wood Are crackling as brightly m the centre Tielamber. The goats in the little courtyard W early ascended to the roof, their sleepmg-place. by the rude st.ps outside the house, and the human guests eft one b; one, about nine-even the sheikh retmng ; so that we remato d alone, except for some tired peasants who rXd themselves out on t^e -^^;;^^--t'^, rghWs raiment [upper garmerrt] to pledge, thou s^ delfver it unto him by that the sun goet« dovm : or t^at is his only covering, it is his outer garment for his skm^ where;^ shall he deep? " » The law is conce.ved m the '.lr.S"*??; D«ts.iv.l3i Jobxxii.6, »v.lO. [CHAP. (f the moun- reatlily takes f spreads the it risk of the ! valley of the ^ho is known ng the grass, emselves that one shall at- One evening )posite side ot for two days, 'eik." 1 conversation, was friendly, en in my own ( Master must li a house : the seat, as it was ly in the centre courtyard had T.place, by the lan guests left, jtiring ; so that L peasants, who I covered them- uld be no better at all take thy ledge, thou shalt down : for that nt for his skin ; conceived in the 6 ; xxiv. 10. VI. LOCALITIES FAMOUS IN DA^'^.^'S LIFE. 117 same merciful spirit that prohibited an upper millstone from being taken in pledge.' After a time the fire died out, but a feeble oil-hinip still gave some light. This went out about midnight, but it wa.s our fault. No house, however poor, is left without a light burning in it all night ; the housewife rising be- times to secure its continuance by replenishing the himp with oil. If a lamp go out, it is a fatal omen. " The light of the v.'icked," says Bildad, "shall be put out tJ»e liglit shall be dark in his tent, and his lamp, above him, shall be put out." ^ "The light of the righteous rejoices," says the IJook of Proverbs, " but the lamp of the wicked shall be put out."^ " How often is the candle [lamp] of the wicked put out ! " cries Job.* Jere- miah, painting the ruin impending over his country, can find no more touching metaphor than that God would "take from it the light of the candle" [lamp];" and St. John repeats, as part of the doom of the mystical Babylon, that " the light of a candle [lamp] shall shine no more at all in it." " The promise to David, implying the perman- ence of his line, was that Jehovah would give him a lamp for his sons always.'' Morning is always interesting in the East. As we walked through the very narrow lanes among the houses, the people were driving their camels, sheep, and goats afield. Here and there a man was on his way to his daily work, with bis plough on his shoulder. A strong castle once stood on the highest point of the hill, the Blanche Garde—" the White Guard "—of the Crusaders, built by them in a.d. 1144 as a defence against the inhabitants of Ascalon. Only a few stones of its walls i-ow remain ; the ' Deut. xxiv. 6. "- Job xviii. 5, 6 (R.V.). » p,„^, ^jjj 9 * Job xxi. 17. « Jer. xxv. 10. « R,,v. xviii. 23 ' 2 Kings viii. 19; 1 Kings xv. 4; xi. 3(j. I II rff riliii juMliiiiiiifi'iiitj'iJiliTjaiiU.^, ■ 119 THE HOLY LAND AND THE BIBLE. [Chap. rest have been carried off to various towns as IxiiUling material. The view from tlie hill-top was maf,Miificent. The mountains of Judah rose grandly, step above step, from north-east to south-west. Nearly straight north, beyond a magnificent exi)anse of fertile plain, tbe lofty tower of liamleh was distinctly visible, and the same vast expanse of plain stretched out to the south ; while on the west, the deep blue of the Mediterranean reached away to join the rich sapphire of the skies. Over twenty smaller or larger villages and hamlets were within view, but there were no habitations between them ; want of security com- pelling every one to live in some community. Hence, after all, the population was very limited. As we descended to the plain by the western side, which is partly terraced, many doves {lew rouud us. These rock pigeons are found in considerable numbers in the clefts of the hill-sides of Palestine, and are often alluded to in the Bible. " O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rocks," says the Beloved.^ "0 ye that dwell in Moab," cries Jeremiah, " leave the cities, and dwell in the rock, and be like the dove that maketh her nest in the sides of the hole's mouth." 2 There are many large caves on the north side of the hill, and some excavations which are used for storing grain. "Water is procured chiefly from a well in a valley to the north. There are no masonry remains on the village table-land. Tell es Safieh is thought by Capt. Conder and Prof. Porter to be the site of the Philistine city of Gath, and as I looked back at it, with its lofty plateau, now occupied by the village we had left, such a natural fortress seemed wonderfully suited for a strong city. Defended by walls and gates, it must have been almost impregnable in ancient times. It is not, indeed, certain that the identification » Cant. ii. 14. * Jer. xlviii. 28. VI.] is correcl with the much in cluster n gathered history o man-mou lanes, tlu too, it nii the head about ei^ Goliath's- in Gath.' the last ( of as all extra tall The Goth by their ( they were vaded, gia among otl It was sacred the nearest th down the , it commau tion, at lei part of the as indeed among thf ' Thenius. ' Thenius ' he who dwel » Vulg., " : * 2 Sam. X [Chap. building ^nificent. ove step, it north, the lofty ame vast e on the I away to y smaller but there rity coiii- Hence, de, which hese rock ? clefts of to in the le rocks," ab," cries k, and be es of the the north e used for b well in a (mains on and Prof, ith, and as V occupied ss seemed I by walls in ancient sntification VI.] LOCALITIES FAMOUS IN DAVIDS LIFE. 119 is correct, for the old name has n(;t been found associah'd with the spot; but, apart from this, probabilities are very much in its favour, if it be the old Gath, what memories cluster round the spot! Here, and at (iaza and Asl.dod, f,'athered the remnant of the huge race known in the earlv history of Palestine as the giants. CJoIiath, a towering man-mountain, nine feet high,' once walked through its lanes, then perhaps not unlike those we had left, and so too, it may be, did Ishbibenob— " my seat is at Nob"="— the head of whose spear » weighed 800 shekels of brass- about eight pounds— only half as heavy, however, as Goliath's— and the other three sons "born to the giant m Gath."* These colossal warriors seem to have been the last of their race, which we do not need to conceive of as all gigantic, but only as noted for boasting some extra tall men among a people famous for their stature. The Goths in old times were spoken of in the same way by their contemporaries as a race of giants, but though they were huge compared with the populations they Tn- vaded, giants were a very rare exception among them, as among other nations. It was to Gath that David fled, after Saul had mas- sacred the priests at Nob for giving him food. It lay nearest the mountains of Judah, and was easily reached, down the great Wady Sorek, or Elah, the mouth of which it commanded, if Tell es Safieh be Gath. But his recep- tion, at least by the retainers of Achish, the king of this part of the Philistine territory, was far from encouraging, as indeed was not wonderful, remembering his fame among their enemies the Hebrews, and his triumph over ' Tkenius. » Thenius snggestB an emendation which vould make the name moiin— ' he who dwells on the height." " Vulg., " iron of the spear." * 2 Sam. xxi. 22. 180 THE HOLY LAND AND THE BIBLE. IC'HAP. their Rf^at chan.pion Goliath. The Fifty-sixth Psuhn. ascribt'tl to this period, (U'seribcs his i).)sition as alnv.st desperate. His " enemies were daily like to swallow him up • they wrested his words ; they marked his steps ; they lay' in wait to take his life." ' Under these circumstances he very naturally had recourse to any stratagem that promised him safety, and hence, knowing' the popular reverence for those mentally affected, pretenc^ d as saints.^ e are, indeed, of them may I with broken is and other ;ommunity by »r favourite of the madness ties in Gath. after the fatal I of Saul and himself deter- , so as to free I carrying out and continued ions} Under added to the I I> id., i. 291, 292. xi.8. LOCALITIKS FAMOUS IN DAVID'S LIFE. ll!l Syrian dominions,' hut T/ziah retook and destroyed it. so that from that time, 2.71)0 years ago, it vanishes from history, a short allusion to it by the rroj)lu;t Mieah ex- cepted.* On his second llight to (lath, some years later, David seems to have fared better. Aehish apjx'ars to have j)er- suaded his people that it was a highly politic; step to welcome, as an ally, one s(» famous in tl>e past as an enemy. In keeping with this, and to remove him fnmi possible collision with the fighting men of (Jath, a village was given him — Ziklag — deep in the south country of Judah, where he would at once be useful, as was no doubt thought, in defending the Philistine territory from attacks in that direction, and safely remote from the centre of the little kingdom. Once in his distant exile, he must have found himself committed to a war of defence airainst the lawless Amalekites — restless, tent-dwelling IJedouins, who lived by plunder, and had always been the enemies of the Hebrews.'^ He may have found these fierce marauders raiding against the south country of Judah and the local Arab tribes related to Israel by blood, and thus it may have been true enough when he told Aehish that he had been fighting in those parts ; the Philistine at once concluding that he had been attacking the Hebrews. The plains round Blanche Garde are famous for some of the most romantic deeds of Eichard the Lion-hearted, but they are silent enough now. The landscape rises and falls in low swells ; fallows alternating with sown fields ; the soil nearly black, and evidently very fruitful. These great plains of Philistia and Sharon may yet have a future, if the curse of God, in the form of Turkish rule, be removed. The gardens at Joppa show what glorious vegetation water and industry can create, even where the > 2 Kings xii, 17. " Mic. i. 10. » 1 Sam. xxvii, 8. THK HOLY liANM) AND THE niHI.R, (ClIAl invjulinj; huiuI lias to !)(« ioxufhi, and wo may iina^Mno wluit roMults similar irrigation ami industry would cn-atf ovor tho wido ex pans.'. Tlx' scarcity of woi.d is the on«' t'cature that lessens the K<""<'nil charm, for excepting' the ..rchards and olive-Kroves, v)ften very small, round is( lated villaj?es. there are no trees. So nuich is this the ease indeed that here, as in K^vpt. the only fuel in numy parts for cooking' or heatinj?, if there bo no thorns, is dried camel or cow dunj,' ma then stuck against ' In use, however, for it emits no diH- bad taste to food 1 very like peat, as it idy so much woody a lies about six miles I low rise of ground, ■rn, covered by a low tank close by, about e labour and time in (ry numerous in such norer built, as in the (neks, made of black n sat about, as usual, ig — the best time to efc Turmus is along waves of land, which villages forming the med with dry water- [• torrents. This is the eharaeteristic of marly all streams in Talestiiie. Diinnt,' the winter months, when useless for irri;,'alion. they jire often I'oanjiiii,' rivers; hut in the hot siimmer, when they would he of priceless value, their dry bed is ;,'enerally the road from one point to another, '{'he bare sides of the hills, ill many cases K)ng ap) denuded of all soil, retain very little of the tremendous rain-storms that Im-ak at times over them, in winter or even si)riiii,'. The water rushes over the sheets of rock as it would from the roof of a house, and converj^'ini;, as it descends, into minor streams in the higher wadys, these sweep on to a common channel in .some central valley, and, thus united, swell in an incredihly short time into a deep, troubled, roaring tlood, which fills the whole bottom of the wady with an irresistible torn-nt. Some frieiuls, caught in a storm in Samaria, tdd me they had to flee from their tents to higher ground, while still half-dressed, to escape the sweep of the stream which they knew would presently overwhelm the spot on which their t(Mits had been pitched. The same thing, on a greater scale, is seen in the Siiuii mountains. " I was encamped," says the llev. F. W. Holland,^ " in Wady Feiran, near the base of Jebel Serbal, when a tremendous thunder- storm burst upon us. After little more than an hour's rain the water rose so rapidly in the previously dry wady that I had to run for my life, and with great difficulty succeeded in saving my tent aad goods ; my boots, which I had not time to pick up, being washed away. In less than two houi-s a dry desert wady, upwards of 300 yards broad, was turned into a foaming torrent from eight to ten feet deep, roaring and tearing dov/n, and bearing every- thing before it— tangled masses of tamarisks, hundreds of beautiful palm-trees, scores of sheep and goats, camels and donkeys, and even men, women, and children ; for a whole ' Becovery of Jcnisalem, p. 542. \ 124 THE HOLY LAND AND THE BIBLE. [Chap. encampment of Arabs was washed away a few miles above me. The storm commenced at five o'clock in the evening ; at half-past nine the waters were rapidly subsiding, and it was evident that the flood had spent its force. In the .morning a gently-flowing stream, but a few yards broad, and a few inches deep, was all that remained of it. But the whole bed of the valley was changed. Here, great heaps of boulders were piled up where hollows had been the day before ; there, holes had taken the place of banks covered with trees. Two miles of tamarisk-wood which was situated above the palm-groves had been completely swept down to the sea." Our Lord must have had such unforeseen and irresistible rain-floods in His mind when He spoke of the foolish man who " built his house upon the sand : and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house ; and it fell;"^ or as it is repeated in St. Luke, " who, without OD~MEJDEIi. AsHDOD, now Esdud, one of the five cities of the Philis- tines, is only a village, with a very few stone i«ouses (the rest being of mud), one storey high, enclosed in small courts with mud walls. Doors are as a rule a superfluity in Palestine; or at best are represented by ghosts of what may, perhaps, have once been doors. The "town" rises on the slopes of a low swell, itself commanded by one some- what higher, formerly the site of the castle, but now covered with gardens hedged with tall prickly pear ; im- penetrable, but hideous, and taking up a great deal of room. This hedge grows over a thick wall of stone, regularly cut and well dressed, beneath which, the peasants aver, they have seen several courses of an ancient wall, of great cut stones. There are, indeed, below and round Ashdod, a number of walls, some of them relics of its old glory. The soil is a half -consolidated sand, light, of course, but fertile ; but how long it will remain even as good as at present is a question, since the moving sand-dunes from the sea-coast, two miles and a half off, have come almost to the village, and advance year by year. It is already, indeed, a pitiful sight to notice olives and fig-trees half buried; their owners striving hard, season after season, to shovel away the sand from their trunks, till they stand, in some cases, almost in pits, which would close over them if the eflbrts to save them were intermitted even for a short time. 188. THE HOLY LAND AND THE BIBLE. [Chap. In the court before the village mosque lies one last trace o£ the long past— an ancient sarcopliagus, seven feet long, and broad in proportion ; its side adorned with sculptured garlands, from which hang bunches of grapes, the emblems of the Promised Land. Long ago some rich Hebrew, doubtless, lay in it ; his friends thinking he was safely housed till the last morning. But here stands the coffin— empty for ages ! South of the mosque are the ruins of a great mediieval khan, seventy-three steps long on the side, but not so broad ; the wall seven feet thick, but not very high, ^nside there is an open court, in Arab style, with long galleries, arcades, chambers, and maga- zines, for a traffic not now existing. Some broken granite pillars lie on the ground, and a marble column serves as threshold at the doorway. The discovery of the passage to India round the Cape of Good Hope destroyed the old overland trade from the East, and the Palestine towns on the caravan route fell with it. Beyond this compara- tively modern ruin is a large marsh, from the overflowing of the wadys during the winter ; so much water being left behind as still to show itself even as late as April. The water supply of the village is obtained from rain-ponds with mud banks, and a well to the east, from which a camel was drawing up water by the help of a water-wheel. Near it there are a few date-palms and some small figs, and beyond them a small grove of remarkably fine olives. The villagers resemble the Egyptian peasantry, both in dress and appearance, much more than they do their Palestine fellow-countrymen; why, who can accurately tell? Ashdod was one of the towns inhabited by the remnant of the gigantic Anakim, in the days of Joshua,^ and gloried in a great temple of Dagon, whose worship had here its I Josh. xi. 22. iiwwMrra*afliteii*w-*>5ffli8iffiitBS>iiirtga^:^^^ BIBLE. [Chap. o.sque lies one lust arcopliagu.s, seven 1 side adorned with bunches of grapes, jong ago some rich Is thinking he was Jut here stands the le mosque are the ty-three steps long ill seven feet thick, open court, in Arab lambers, and maga- orae broken granite le column serves as very of the passage e destroyed the old he Palestine towns yond this compara- rom the overflowing ach water being left late as April. The led from rain-ponds east, from which a Ip of a water-wheel. ,nd some small figs, aarkably fine olives, peasantry, both in than they do their (vho can accurately bited by the remnant Joshua,^ and gloried rorship had here its vii.] ASHDOD— MEJDEL. 12l> igu^veammiAi&tmt" head-quarters. This god, half man and half fish,' was the national god of the Philistines ; Derketo, a counterpart of Astarte,- or Ashtaroth, being his female complement, with Ascalon for her chief seat. Dagon, however, was a purely Assyrio-Babylonian deity ; the Nineveh marbles showing both the name and the fish-man, as described in the Book of Samuel. This union of the human figure and that of a fish apparently arose from the natural association, in a maritime population, of the idea of fecundity with the finny tribes ; Dagon being a symbol of the reproductive power of nature, and having been origin- ally worshipped on the shores of the Persian Gulf, from which, through Chaldaja, the Philistines received the cultus, apparently from the Phoenicians, who came from the Persian Grulf by way of Babylonia. Ashdod was assigned to the tribe of Judah,^ but it never came into their possession, and even so late as the time of Nehemiah it was ranked among the cities hostile to Israel." Lying on the great military road between Syria and Egypt, it was an important strategical post from the earliest times. Uzziah took and kept it for a short time,^ breaking down its walls to prevent its revolt. In the year B.C. 711, about fifty years after Uzziah's death,^ Sargon of Assyria sent his "tartan," or field-marshal, against the city, which was speedily taken, with the miserable fate of having its population led off to Assyria, some victims of war from the East being settled in their room ; the town was re- built to receive them, and incorporated into the A. Syrian Empire under an imperial governor. The king, Jaman, had fled, with his wife, his sons, and his daughters, to the ' 1 Sam. V. 4 ; see margin. ^ 1 Sam. xxsi. 10. ' Josh. XV. 46. • Amos i. 8 ; Nch. iv. 7. • 2 Cliron. xxvi. t>. • B.C. 758. .y A ^-i^v*£7i.?>i4*A. ii. 157. 55. . 7. 7. thought they need fear Israel no longer j they had cut off the source of Divine aid ; the Hebrews lay at th;ir mercy, helpless witliout a God. Priests in their vestments, choirs in their singing robes, players on instruments, in high fes- tival adornment; maidens with their timbrels and graceful dance ; the king and his court in their bravest array, went out, we may be sure, through the city gates to meet the lighting men returning with spoil so glorious. The hill, now so quiet under its mantling olives, must have echoed with the shouts of the populace as the ark was borne up to the great temple of Dagon, who had shown himself so much greater than Jehovah by the victory his people had gained, through his help, over the worshippers of the Hebrew God. But we know the sequel ; the fallen dis- honour of the god of Ashdod on the morrow, prostrate on the earth before the ark, as if to do it homage ; the still deeper shame of the following day ; the human head and hands of the upper half of the idol cut off and laid on the threshold, as if to profane it, and for ever bar entrance ; only the ignominious " fishy-part " left ! ^ The cry arose to take the ark to Gath at the foot of the mountains, on the other side of the plain; so off it went, on a rude cart which d^ Tged it thither, across wadys, and round the low hills, and through wide corn-lands. But Gath soon found cause to dread the ominous trophy. The citizens de- manded that it should be sent to Ekron, eleven miles to the north, to let that city try what it could do with it. There, also, it was soon a terror. For seven months it wrought woe in the land. Once more the cry arose to send it off, but this time cows, instead of oxen, were yoked to the cart which bore it, and their calves kept at home, that the will of the Philistine gods respecting it might be judged from the action of the dumb creatures that were to ' 1 Saui. V. 4 (margin). J 2 ,c. «<«F-.»;_iiRi.-.,tiww.*-t •r^iii^'Ti^T-^f::- ^'' I 189 THE HOLY LAND AND THE BIBLE. [Chap. bear it away. If the milky mothers turni 1 back to their calves, it would be a sign that the ark wa.s yet to stay m the Philistine plain ; if they kept on their way up mto the hills to the land of the Hebrews, it would \)0 a proot that the gods wished it to be restored to its own people. But the kine went straight south from Ekron. lowing for then- calves as they went, yet never turning from their steady advance along the road to the great Wady Surar-the valley of Elah. the steep pass to the Hebrew country in the mountains-never stopping till they had dragged their awful burden far up to the rounded hill 900 feet above the sea, on which stands Bethshemesh. distant at least fifteen miles from Ekron. , • , xi The images of the mice and emerods by which the Philistines had been plagued, sent with the ark by the sufferers as votive offerings to propitiate the Hebrew God whom they had offended, are the first of the kind re- corded. Other ancient nations, however, were m the habit of hanging up in the temples of their gods small «' images " of diseased parts of the body which had been healed, in answer to prayer as they believed, and also small models of whatever had caused them danger or suffering, now averted by the same heavenly aid : a practice still observed in Greek and Koman Catholic churches where silver models of eyes, arms, or legs indicate cures supposed to have been effected by the intercession of par- ticular saints, and small models of ships show deliverance from peril at sea.^ That the Hebrews hung up the votive 1 In Herod, i. 105 there ia» story about a disease inflicted on tjie womon T>J^l %ic a 22) tells us that models of the mms.ug members of Osins were D>od. bic. (1. -:-) lU's us -p ti^y temp'es. Rosonmuller .1. und N. hmiK up and worshipped ui the l^gyntiau temp e BIBLE. [Chap. rn{ 1 back to their iviih yet to stay in sir way up into the ikl >M) a proof that own people. But m, lowing for their from their steady Wady Surar — the Hebrew country in y had dragged their hill 900 feet above sh, distant at least ;rods by which the dth the ark by the te the Hebrew God rst of the kind re- yrever, were in the of their gods small ody which had been r believed, and also sed them danger or ivenly aid : a practice a Catholic churches r legs indicate cures 3 intercession of par- lips show deliverance s hung up the votive ease inflicted on the women ^scalon, wonderfully like the I a distorted tradition of it. slug members of Osiris were 8. RosonmuUer (A. und JV. Of. a this subject. A tablet ylea of Isis aud Neptune by VII.] ASHDOD-MEJDEL. 133 offerings of the Philistines in the now Tabernacle raised at Gibeon, or Nob, after the destruction of the origiiiiil ''Tent of Meeting" at 81iih)li by the Philistines, we have, however, no proof, though gifts offered to the Temple .seem in later days to have been displayed on its walls. Passing a little beyond the town to the shade of a large sycamore, close to the ruins of the old Liian, we were glad to halt for mid-day refreshment. There was nice grass round the trunk, open tilled ground on one side, and the road, with hedges of prickly pear ten feet high, on the other. A number of the villagers soon gathered round us, entering into the friendliest conversation with my companion, to whom Arabic was familiar. One of them, taking off his wide camels'-hair " abba," spread it, like a broad sheet, on the ground, as a seat ; but we fortunately had shawls and coats of our own, and thus, while acknow- ledging very sincerely the politeness, were able to escape a possible danger not very pleasant to think of. A little girl was sent for water by our friends, and brought it in one of the small brown unglazed pitchers of the country. Courtesy satisfied, all withdrew a short distance and sat down on the ground, the usual resting-place of an Oriental, to look on without rudeness, and, no doubt, to talk about us. Meanwhile we were left in peace to enjoy our lunch— bread, oranges, hard-boiled eggs, and the re- mains of a chicken— the usual fare in Palestine. The sycamore under which we sat in delightful shade was a good specimen of a tree very common in Palestine, those saved from the sea. Models of diseased limbs. &c., are hnnp np in the temples of India by pilgrims who have journeyed to those sanctuaries to prny tor tlie cure of ailments affocting the parts tfms represented. This lias Im^n the custom from the immemorial past. Eyes, feet, and hand.s, in metal, once imig up in Grecian temples, have been found. Juvenal (Sat., x. 55) alludes to the custom as familiar in Rome. See also Herat. Car., i. 6, 13—16, where tiio clothes of the persons saved are hung up, as well as a picture of liie ship f,^- wi()«^.^fw* >a/jasi*'?i: i. I 'ao^'^ iitf-i-^ «r^*^*rt '^.'fjpt-i-* ■liu^'S' .«^'ss?:»59B»?K:s5S6*iir5asir?r3MSPr*rffi!£3?E>j,^ 134 THE HOLY LAND AND THE BIBLE. [Chap. but only on the lowlands of the coast, the Jordan valley, and Lower Galilee. The old name of Haifa, indeed, was Sykaminon, in allusion to the abundance of sycamores m its neighbourhood. The tree grows also in the neighb(,ur- hood of Jerusalem and Tekoa,i ^nd in Egypt it is very common : a circumstance which has led to the opinion that it must have been introduced in ancient times from that country to the Holy Land. It grows from forty to fifty feet hi<'h with a thick gnarled stem, and numerous strong limbs, which, at a short distance from the ground, strike out horizontally, instead of upwards, as with most other trees : so that Zaccheus, at Jericho, when he wished to see our Lord, could easily climb into a vantage-place on a stout branch. Nothing, indeed, is more common than to hnd the children of a village amusing themselves by getting up for sport into the branches of any sycamore growing near. Its broad crown, often twenty paces across, makes it an admirable shade-tree; many persons being able to enjoy, at the same time, the delicious coolness of its branches. For this reason it was planted, in Christ's day, along much-frequented roads i^ a public convenience to which Zaccheus was indebted for the opportunity of which he availed himself. The fruit of the sycamore grows in clusters on the trunk and the wood of the great branches ; not on twigs like the ordinary fig. Striped with clouded white and green, and shaped like the fig, it is more woody, less sweet, and otherwise less pleasant to the taste, nor has it the small seeds in its flesh which we see in the fig. To make the fruit agreeable it needs to be cut open, some days before it is ripe, that part of the bitter juice may run out, and the rest undergo a saccharine fermentation, to sweeten the whole. Only the poorest make this cutting an employ- 1 KiuRS X. 27. « Luke xvii. 6 ; xix. 4. ■i l l T I ' '"*''" BIBLE. [Chap. A8HD0D - MEJDEL. \:\r, the Jordan valley, Haifa, indeed, was ice of sycamores in in the neighbour- 1 Efjypt it is very to the opinion that nt times from that from forty to fifty kI numerous strong the ground, strike IS with most other en he wished to see age-place on a stout jmmon than to find emselves by getting f sycamore growing paces across, makes rsons being able to ous coolness of its ited, in Christ's day, iblic convenience to opportunity of which s in clusters on the inches ; not on twigs 1 clouded white and is more woody, less the taste, nor has it ^e see in the fig. To )e cut open, some days iv juice may run out, mentation, to sweeten lis cutting an employ- ee xvii. 6 ; xis. 4. ment, so that when Amos speaks of it as being his calling, he wishes to indicate the lowliness of his social position.' The first harvest is gathered about the beginning of ,Iune, and from that time till t\w beginning of winter the tree continues to show both blossoms and fruit, ripe and unripe, so that it is gathered repeatedly in the same season. The light, but tough and almost imperishable wood of the sycamore caused it to be largely used as building material by the Hebrews, though it was far less j)ri/ed than the wood of the cedar. That it must have been very plentiful in ancient times is shown by the fact that, to prove the splendour of Solomon's times, he is recorded to have made cedars as the sycamore-trees of the lowlands for abundance." In the same way, the haughty peoj)le of Samaria boasted that though the enemy had cut down the sycamores, they would build with cedars.'* Still, in the general poverty of native timber, the sycamore was of great value to the Hebrews, so that it is natural to read of David's appointing an overseer to take charge of his olive and sycamore woods in the maritime plain.' The track south of Ashdod skirts the edge of the sand- hills, but on the inland side the mountains of .Tudah rise, ten or twelve miles off, beyond a rolling country, half arable and half pasture. Asses laden with bags of wool passed us on the way from Gaza to Joppa ; one or two, also, with great loads of a broom-like plant, used to make ropes for water-wheels or wells. The plough was busy in all direc tions ; and where the light soil invited flocks and herds, the slopes of the low hills were often enlivened by tijem. But they belonged to wandering tent Arabs, not to the peasantry round; for, just as in Abraham's day, these ' Amos vii. 14. " 1 Kings X. 27 ; 2 Cliron. i. 15 ; ix. 27. " Isn. ix. 10. * 1 Chrou. xxvii. 28. iKF"™Fj-T-.-~g9^jv sTTfl^Pi^^sBgisar-wsr:^' IM THE HOLY LAND AND THE BIBLE. [Chap. sons of tlu« (loscrt roam tlin»uj,'li tlio land us tlioy ploaso, feeding tlicir Hocks on t\\v open hill-sides. Onr parting,' at Ashdod had been qnitc a Hccnc, Vcnonildo j^Toybrards iuid younj,'cr men, all with fine li};uros and pictnr('S(|U(' dross, came to the road and waited till the horses were yoked; bidding; us, at last, a friendly farewell, with Western shaking,' of hands. As we advanced, the patches of cultivated land in- creased till as many as twenty ploughs could be seen gt)ing at the same time, each drawn by a camel or by small, lean oxen. It reminded one of Elisha, " who was ploughing, with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he with the twelfth,"' which means that there were twelve ploughs at work, the twelfth being guided by the prophet himself. Green hills rose in succession, with herds of hundreds of cattle on them— all, still, the property of Arabs, whose black tents were often to be seen in the distance. These nomadic Ishnuielites are in fact immensely rich, according to Eastern ideas ; their wealth, like that of the patriarchs, whom they much resemble in their mode of life, consisting of ilocks and herds. The plain was seamed, from time to time, with the dry stony beds of winter torrents, in which no water ever llows except after rains. The town of Hamaweh, surrounded by a wide border of gardens, soon came in sight ; the white blossom of almond-trees rising like a snowy cloud above the cactus - hedges, which stretched onwards till they joined those of the larger town, El-Mejdel. The latter place is the capital of the district in which it stands, and boasts a population of 1,500 inhabitants. A small mosque with a tall minaret is its only prominent public building, and the houses are nearly all built of mud, like those of the other towns of the plain ; ' 1 Kiugs xix. 19. WMBf'"T"^it fiir'mr'i-'i ■|,f»'^iHWi«tfa**a"afla ■■ iinLE. {Chap. V(l. ASHDOD-MK.IDEL. w 1(1 us tljoy ph'usc, Ics. Our piirtin^ lonible ^Tpybi'iinls I and |)ictur('S(|U(' I the horses were ly I'urewell, with iiltivated land in- )uKl be seen ^t)inf^ 1 or by HiiiuU, leun lio was ploughiiif^, and he witli the re twelve ploughs e prophet himself, rds of hundreds of r of Arabs, whose B distance. These ely rich, according t of the patriarchs, ie of life, consisting med, from time to torrents, in which lis. The town of r of gardens, soon ilmond-trees rising tus- hedges, which liose of the larger le district in which 1,500 inhabitants, its only prominent ) nearly all built ^ns of the plain ; a very few of stone being the exception. Deep wells, some of them with the water \'2{) feet below the surfaee, ])rovide the means of irrigating the gardens. Camels or o,\en raise the fertilising stream by " Persian wheels," or sakiyehs, like those in other |)laces; the various heads of families providing the animals in turn, as the wells are j)ublic property. A large rain-pond lies to the east of the village, and a far-stretching cemetery on the west ; for death is as busy in one place as in another. There is a great market held in Mejdel every Friday — the Mahom- medan Sunday — attracting buyers and sellers fiom all parts of the plain. The olive plantations on all sides of the town were very fme. Looking old, however young, so broken and gnarled is their bark, so twisted their short stems ; often hollow ; often as if covered only with a lace- work of bark ; the light greyish-green of their small pointed leaves so faded, *vith their white under-sides showing in every breath of wind — they ure like no other tree that I know. Olive-growing is largely followed in the southern parts of the plain. From Mejdel onwards, the tree covers the slopes of the low hills and the rich plains, making them one vast orchard, for they are not higher than fruit-trees, and are mostly narrower in their round of foliage than ordinary fruit-trees with us. Casting less shade than our apple or pear-trees, and standing wider apart, the wide groves of them, with the soft green underneath, made the whole landscape at times look as lovely and rich as an English park. If Hosea had in his thoughts such a scene as this south of Mejdel he might well say of Israel, when restored to Divine favour, that its " beauty would be as the olive- tree," ^ just as Jeremiah, at a later date, was to compare its early glory with that of a green olive-tree, fair and of goodly 1 Hos. xiv. 6. i ii 138 THE HOLY LAND AND THE BIBLE. [Chap. fruit.i i^or could David more vividly picture his future prospe.ity when delivered from his enemies, according to Hebrew ideas, than by the thought that he would be like one of the green olive-trees which grew m the open court before t\ie House of God— the Tabernacle he had raised in Jerusalem.^ The olive was cultivated in Palestine long before the Hebrew invasion, for " olive-trees which thou plantedst not " » are enumerated among the good things on which they entered, and it must have been widely cultivated throughout B'Me times, from the frequent allusions to it. It is, in fact, a.d must always have been, in Palestine, as characteristic a feature of the landscape as the date-palm is in Egypt. On the long stretches of bare, stony hill- sides the olive is often the only tree that enlivens the monotony of desolation. IMoses and Job hardly used a figure when they spoke of " oil out of the flinty rock," * for olives flourish best on sandy or stony soil, and it is because the Philistine plain consists so largely of consoli- dated sand that they grow on it so luxuriantly. In ancient times the country must have been dotted every- where with olive-groves. " Thou shalt have olive-trees," says Moses, " throughout all thy coasts." ' Asher, on its hills, behind Tyre, and southwards to Kartha, on the coast, below Acre, was to " dip his foot in oil," as it over- flowed from the presses." Joel promised that, if the people turned to their God, "the fats should overflow with oil."^ The olive harvest was, in fact, as important to the Hebrew peasant as that of the vine or of corn ; the three being often mentioned together as the staples of the national ' Jer. xi. 16. 2 Ps. lii. 8. 3 Dent. vi. 11. * Deut. xxxii. 13; Job xxix. 6. 6 Dent, xxviii. 40. 6 Deiit. xxii). 24 » Joel ii. 24. j^j^ifert!t.«S»WVi E BIBLE. [Chap. VII.] ASHDOD— MEJDEL. 139 ly picture his future enemies, according it that he would be ih grew in the open e Tabernacle he had itine long before the /hich thou plantedst ood things on which en widely cultivated jquent allusions to it. been, iu Palestine, as cape as the date-palm BS of bare, stony hill- ree that enlivens the d Job hardly used a of the flinty rock," * r stony soil, and it is so largely of consoli- so luxuriantly. In ve been dotted every- lialt have olive-trees," )asts." ^ Asher, on its Is to Kartha, on the foot in oil," as it over- ised that, if the people lid overflow with oil."'' iportant to the Hebrew corn ; the three being staples of the national 6 Deut. xxviii. 40. 6 Deut. xxiii. 24. » Joel ii. 24. prosperity.' It was even so important an element in the royal revenue that David had officers over his stores of oil and his olive-woods. More indeed was raised than could be used for home consumption, whether for cooking, light, worship, or for anointing the person, and hence it was largely exported to Egypt and PhoMiicia.^ " Judah and the land of Israel," says Ezekiel, "traded in thy markets" — those of Tyre — wheat from the Haunin, spices or millet,^ and honey, and oil, and the resin of the pistachio-tree.^ The olive is propagated from shoots or cuttings, which, after they have taken root, are grafted, since otherwise they would grow up " wild olives," and bear inferior fruit. Sometimes, however, a "good" olive from some cause ceases to bear, and in this case a shoot of wild olive — that i^:,, one of the shoots from those which spring up round the trunk — is grafted into the barren tree, with the result that the sap of the good olive turns this wild shoot into a good branch, bearing fruit such as the parent stem should have borne. It is to this practice that St. Paul alludes when he says of the Gentiles, " If some of the branches were broken off, and thou, being a wild olive, wast grafted in among them, and didst become partaker with them of the root and of the fatness of the olive- tree ; " ^ and, further, " If thou wast cut out of the olive- tree that is wild by nature, and wast grafted, contrary to » Deut. xxviii. 40 ; rii. 13 ; xi. 14 ; xii. 17 ; Joel i. 10; ii. 19, 24 ; 1 Chron. xxvii. 28 ; 2 Chron. xxxii. 28. 2 Ho8. xii. 1 ; 1 Kings v. 12 ; Ezra iii. 7 ; Ezek. xxvii. 17. " Miniiith " was in the Haurt\n. 3 " Paunag " is thus A'ariously understood. * Riehm. This resin was used largely as a salve for wounds, while oil from the leaves, bark, and black berries of the tree, was a noted medicine for both external and internal use. 6 Rom. xi. 17 (R.V.). Art. " Oelbaum," Herzog, 2te Auf., x. 725 ; Riehm, Bibel Lex. lJj^ifefiSt^-*Kl-- t sS 140 THE HOLT LAND AND THE BIBLE. [Ohap. ;u- nature, into a good olive-tree." He refers to the bar; ness of the Jewish Church as the olive of God's own choice, and the grafting on it of the Gentiles, hitherto a wild olive, hut, now, through this grafting, made to yield fruit, though only from the root and sap of the old noble stem. By the " olive-tree wild by nature " can only be meant the shoots that spring up wild and worthless from the root. There is no wild olive apart from these. The tree has a long life. For ten years it bears no fruit, and it is not till its fortieth year that it reaches its highest productiveness. In spring the blossoms shoot out in clusters among the leaves, but the harvest does not come till October, when, the dark-green, oval berries, some- what larger than a cherry, are ready for gathering. This is done by women and boys, who climb into the trees and shake them, or stand beneath and beat the branches with a long pole, but there are always a few left in the topmost branches, and these are the perquisite of gleaners. It seems as if we still lived, in this respect, in the days of Moses and the prophets. "When thou beatest thine olive-tree," says Moses,^ "thou si alt not go over the boughs again ; it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow." " Gleaning grapes shall be in it,'' saj's Isaiah,^ " as the shaking of an olive-tree : two or three berries in the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in the outer — most fruitful — branches thereof." The poor olive-gleaner may still be seen every year gathering what he can after the trees have been stripped by their owners. This harvest-time is one of general gladness, as may well be supposed. Some beriies fall, by the wind or from other causes, before the general crop is ripe, but they must lie there, guarded by watchmen, till a proclamation is made by the governor that all the trees are to be picked. 1 Deut. xxiv. 20. ^ Isa. xvii. 6; xxiv. 13. IBLE. [Chap. VII.] ASHDOD— MEJDEL. 141 rs to the bar ru- e of God's own ntiles, hitherto a \g, made to yield of the old noble re " can only be d worthless from om these, y^ears it bears no that it reaches its : blossoms shoot harvest does not val berries, some- gathering. This nto the trees and ;he branches with ft in the topmost of gleaners. It jt, in the days of ou beatest thine not go over the er, the fatherless, ill be in it,'' saj's ie : two or three fh, four or five in reof." The poor ir gathering what by their owners, gladness, as may the wind or from is ripe, but they ill a proclamation i are to be picked. ; xxiv. 13. This is to allow the tax-gatherer to be on the spot to demand his toll ; for the Turk foolishly taxes each tree, thus discouraging as much as possible the increase of plantations. The gleanings left, after all efTorts, are a boon to the very poor, who manage to gather enough to keep their lamp alight through the winter and to cook their simple fare. The shoots springing up from the root of each tree long ago furnished a pleasant simile to the Psalmist. "Thy children," says he, "shall be like olive plants round thy table ;"^ that is, tliey will cluster round it as these suckers cling round the root from which they spring. It is a striking illustration of the smallness of the population in Palestine that thousands of olive-trees are left uncared for, to be swallowed up by an undergrowth of thorns and weeds. The tax on each tree is, no doubt, in part the cause of this state of things. Fear of its being increased paralyses industry. In ancient times the gathered olives were either pressed, or trodden by the feet, in an olive-vat.^ The finest oil, however, was that which flowed from the berries when they were merely beaten, not from those that were pressed, and hence it was expressly required for relio-ious services.^ It is also the "fresh oil" of which David speaks.* An oil-vat at the foot of the Moi^nt of Olives gave its name to the garden of Gethsemane. Eemains of such v;i<^, hewn in the rocks, are found in places where there is now no longer any trace of the olive — as, for instance, in the country south of Hebron ; so that the tree formerly grew over a wider region than at present. Along with the vats in which the berries were trodden, presses and even mills were used after a time, the oil 1 Ps. cxxdii. 3. » Ex. xxvii. 20 ; xxix. 40; Lev. xxiv. 2. 2 Mie. vi. 15. « Ps. xcii. 10. ■<-^,.^.-«s-r:j.-p* i 142 THE HOLY LAND AND THE BIBLE. [Chap. beinjj so imperfectly separated by the feet that that custom is now quite discontinued. Withoit cultivation the olive soon ceases to yield. Hence the soil underneath it is ploughed each spring, or oftener, so as to admit the air to the roots, and no crop is sown, as under other fruit-trees. The earth, moreover, is drawn round the tree to keep it moist; but neither manuring nor pruning is practised. A full crop is gathered only each second year, from what cause I do not know. One strange fact in conne'^tion with this was told We are accustomed to regard locusts as only a curse, me but it is said that they often prove the reverse, since tiieir greedy jaws virtually prune the trees, and thus double the harvest of the next year. The mills used in obtaining the oil are of two kinds ; the one, worked by hand, consisting simply of a heavy stone wheel, which is rolled over the berries thrown into a stone basin. When crushed, they are taken out as pulp, and put into straw baskets, which are then placed in a screw-press and squeezed. The oil thus obtained is of excellent quality, though inferior to the " beaten ; " but a third quality is obtained by subjecting the alread- pressed pulp to a second squeezing. The other mill is a hollow cylinder, with iron rods projecting at its lower end. It stands upright, and turns on a round framework of stone, the iron rods beating the olives to pulp as they are thrown in. After this maceration they are put under a beam heavily weighted at the end, and thus, one would think, the last possible yield of oil is obtained. But there is still a little left, and a second pressing, after the already sorely squeezed pulp has been heated, secures this final portion. Beyond Mejdel the country was beautiful. Olive-groves and softly-green fields of barley varied the light-brown of the ploughed land, or the roughness of tracts which tBLE. [Chap. feet that that ceases to yield. I each spring, or Dots, aud no crop earth, moreover, ist; but neither A full crop is ,t cause I do not ith this was told s as only a curse, he reverse, since trees, and thus ire of two kinds ; nply of a heavy rries thrown into ;aken out as pulp, then placed in a is obtained is of " beaten ; " but a lealreaf^- pressed ' mill is a hollow s lower end. It xmework of stone, ,s they are thrown at under a beam one would think, But there is still the already sorely his final portion, iful. Olive-groves i the light-brown is of tracts which m.] ASHDOD— MEJDEL. 143 there was no one to till. Over, these tracts, tufts of large lily-like plants grew in great abundance ; great numbers of the bulbs, mostly squills, lying at the roadside, where the light ploughs had torn them out of the patches of soil taken for cultivation. Bands of white limestone cropped up here and there, as the road climbed the low swells ; larks sang in the air, or perched on some clod, or ran ahead of us on the track, before taking wing — for there are fifteen species of lark in Palestine; a string of camels kept us in mind of the East, as they stalked on, laden with huge boxes of *' hundel," a kind of root used for mysterious combinations by the drug merchants. A low cemented whitewashed structure, like a miniature saint's tomb, with an opening breast-high on one side, stood by the road — a drinking fountain, filled daily by the kindness of women passing with their water-jars, to supply the way- farer with a cup of cold water, than which no gift is more precious in this dry and thirsty land. Kindness of heart, thank God, is limited to no race or country. The ex- perience of Canon Tristram, in one instance, is that of every traveller in any hot climate. Thirsting exceed- ingly, he asked a drink from a young Arab girl who had her tall water- jar on her shoulder, having just filled it. In a moment it was set down for the freest use. A small present for her courtesy seemed natural, but she would not take it. Tears filled her eyes ; she would have no bakshish ; she gave the v/ater freely, for the sake of her mother, lately dead, and for charity and the love of Grod ! So saying, she kissed the hands of the party, and they passed on — anyone can imagine with what thoughts. So, doubtless, it sometimes happened with our blessed Lord and His band of disciples, as they journeyed over the hot, white hills of Galilee or Judaea ; the giver who put her water-jar at their service for the love of the Master, in 144 THE HOLY LAND AND THE BIBLE, [Chap. nowise losing her reward.^ Everywhere, the country out- side the town gardens lay unfenced ; here, in wild scanty pasture; at another part, broken up into patches of ploughed land, or green with spring crops. What seemed mole -hills were to be seen everywhere, but it appears that they were the mounds of a kind of mole-rat, not of the true mole, which is not found in Palestine ; the mole- rat taking its place.*^ This is the creature called a weasel in the English Bible.^ Unlike our mole, it delights in the ruins scattered so widely over the land ; the cavities in them, doubbless, supplying ready-made spots for its nest. It is twice the size of our mole, with no external eyes, and with only faint traces, within, of the rudimentary organ ; no apparent ears, but, like the mole, with great internal organs of hearing ; a strong bare snout, and large gnawing teeth ; its colour, a pale slate ; its feet, short, and provided with strong nails ; its tail, only rudimen- tary. Isaiah, in his prophecy of the idols being thrown to the moles and to the bats,* uses a different word, but its meaning, " thrower up of the soil," fixes its application. It is a curious illustration of the poverty of the Hebrew language, and the consequent difficulty of quite accurate Lra. Jation, that a word rendered once in our version, " the mole," ^ is rendered " swan " in the two other cases in which it is used,« the context forming the only clue to its meaning, which, in these two cases, seems to point to its being some bird. Nor do scholars help one very much, for they render it, variously, pelican, horned owl, water- hen, or sea-awallow. Still other villages !— Nalia and Burberah, embowered in orchards and olive-grounds, which stretch unbroken for f t b t ii tl P a h h ]>' «J oi b{ til tl] th fo so th to mc ga .sec in lef] vvh slie the wh > Matt. X. 42 ; Mark iv 41. » Tristram, Land of Israel, p. 186. 3 Lev. xi. 21). * Isa. ii. 20. ' Lev. xi. 30. « Lev. xi. 18 ; Deut. xiv. 16. 3IBLE. [Chap. VII.] ASHDOD— MEJDEL, 145 , the country out- re, in wild scanty into patches of IS. What seemed e, but it appears f mole-rat, not of estine; the mole- ire called a weasel Die, it delights in land ; the cavities lade spots for its with no external )f the rudimentary I mole, with great re snout, and large ;e ; its feet, short, lil, only rudimen- Is being thrown to rent word, but its es its application. :ty of the Hebrew r of quite accurate 1 our version, " the wo other cases in the only clue to its ;ms to point to its Ip one very much, borned owl, water- irberah, embowered tretch unbroken for ii. 20. . xi. 30. . xi. 18 ; Dcut. xiv. 16. four miles south of Mejdel ; those of Nalia half-way acrosn the sand-dunes, which must have been kept back from them by inhnite labour. West of tiie Nalia orchards and groves these sand-dunes stretch little more than a mile inland ■ immediately south of the town they run three miles into the land; the gardens jutting out into them as a verdant peninsula. At JJurberah, a mile to the south, they cover a breadth of three miles. On the east of the village crreen barley-fields stretched away as far as the eye could ivach hemming round a sea of gardens hedged with the prickly ]>ear, and beautiful with the grey and green of olive-trees hgs. pomegranates, and almonds ; the last in all the .rlorv of their white blossom. Vineyards, also fenced, varied the bounteous prospect, and olive-trees, in open groves, clothed the slopes, almost in thousands. Very different would be the landscape a few months later. The olive-groves would then be dull with dust, the rr.ulberry-leaves gone-as food tor sheep, no silkworms being cultivated in this part-the soil parched and dry, the very stubble withered to tinder • the sky brass, the earth iron ; trees and villages seeminL' to quiver in the hot air. Harvest is over on the plains before it begins in the mountains, so that the peasants of Philistia go off to gather the crops of the highlands after their own are secured. The sickle is still in use for reaping, as it was m Bible times; the reaper gathering the grain into his left am as he cuts it.^ Following him comes the binder vvho makes up into large bundles-not as with us int(i sheaves-the little heaps of the reaper.^ During his toil the peasant refreshes himself with a poor meal of roasted wheat, and pieces of bread dipped in vinegar and water.'^ ' Ps. cxxix 7; Isa. xvii. 5. 2 Jer. ix. 2-2; Ps. exxix. 7; Gen. xxxvii. 7. 1 Sam. xvii. IV ; Riit;i ii. IJ. f n im TKE HOLY LAND AND THE BIBLE. [Chap. just US they did of old. The bundles of cut grain are carried on nsses or sometimes on camels ' to the open-air threshiug-tloor, near the village ; one of the huge bundles, nearly as large as the camel itself, being hung on each side of the patient beast, in a rough netting of rope, as he kneels to receive them. Rising and bearing them off, he once more kneels at the threshing-lloor, to have them re- moved, returning lorthwith to the reapers to repeat the same round. The harvest in Palestinu lasts for weeks; one kind of grain ripening before another, ana lifferent levels having adifterent time for reaping. In the plain of Philistia it begins in April and ends in June, but on the deep-sunk and hot plains of the Jordan the barley harvest begins at the end of March, and that of wheat two or three weeks later. In .e mountains it is later, as I have said, than on the sia-coast. Garden fruits and grapes ripen before the autumn, but maize, melons, olives, and dates not till autumn has commenced. It was the same in ancient times. The harvest began legally on the second day of the Passover week, the IGth of Nisan, the month when the grain came to the ear, which corresponded to our April. From that time harvest continued for seven weeks, till the feast of Pentecost.^ Barley came first, then wheat,=^ which is all reaped in the Jordan valley, m ordinary yean, 'jy the middle of May. The threshii. ^-floor is always chosen on as exposed and high a spot as can be had, to catch the wind for winnow- in<' ; flat spaces on hill-tops being selected in some cases, as' in that of Araunah the Jebusite.* The ground is ' Carts were also usoil anciently. (Amos ii. 13.) * Ex. xxiii. 16 ; Lev. xxiii. 10; Deut. xvi. 9; Jos. Ant, iii. 10, 5. 3 Ruth i. 2-i ; ii. 23 i 2 Sam. xxi. 9 ; Geu. xx x. 14 ; Jixdg. xv. 1 ; 1 bam vi. 13 ; xii. 17. * 2 Sam. xxiv. 18. ^mmmm- [BLE. [Chap. of cut grain are ' to the open-air le huge bundles, J hung on each ng of rope, as he ing them off, he to have them re- rs to repeat the lasts for weeks ; ler, ana lifferent In the plain of June, but on the he barley harvest of wheat two or is later, as I have ruits and grapes elons, olives, and It was the same n legally on the 6th of Nisan, the rhich corresponded jntinued for seven Barley came first, Jordan valley, in on as exposed and wind for winnovv- ted in some cases, ^ The ground is I. Ant., iii. 10, 5. 14; Jixdg. XV. 1; ISam VII.] ASHDOD-MEJDEL. It? pivpared by be.ng beaten and trampled smootli and hard. Heaps of grain laid in circles, with the heads inwards are pded on the threshing-lioor. which is guarded during the night by a watclunan in a slight watch-hut on the floor ' , as in the instance of Boa., the owner himself does not sleep on the sheaves.' Like liuth, the poor gleaner is content to beat out her few armfuls with a stick.^ J3ut though need of secrecy forced (iideon to use the flail in the holbw of the wine-press.3 it is no longer in general use in lalestme; only legumes like fitches, or herbs like cummin, being now beaten, as indeed was the general case m the days of Isaiah.^ ^ Where there are no threshing-sledges, o.ven are still employed to tread out the grain, over which they walk round and round, as it lies in huge mounds on the floor' just as I have seen hors.s driven round on it in Southern liussia. Ihe kindly requirement of the old Mosaic law, Jn '" t i' T""^" *''' "^ ^'^^^" ^'' *^^^^«*1» «ut the corn, has happily outlived the changes of race in the and, and is still nearly always observed, though here and there a peasant is found who ties up the mouth of the poor creatures that tread out his grain. Usually, how- ever, threshing-sledges are employed to separate the corn from the straw. The commonest of these is a solid wooden sledge, consisting only of a set of thick boards, bolted together by cross-bands, and bent up at the front to let It pass easily over the straw. In the bottom of facU ate the threshing, and also to cut up the'straw into the teben ' used for fodder. Oxen yoked to this are driven round over the heaps of grain and straw; a man with a large wooden fork, turning over the he^p as tL isa. xxMii. 27. « Deut. xxv. 4. K 2 IW THE HOLY LAND AND THE BIBLE. [Oi.af. M^o passes, till the ^rnun is entirely s^'P^^'f ^ ;>;"^ *^>« .tmw sull'cientlv brok-n into sn.all pico-s. '1 he tel.ou. with which a f:M-eat de.l of ^n-ain is necessarily in.xo.l is then thrown nito the centre of the lloor, where it ^rnulually vises to a huKO mouna. The chall and the ^'^nn are next swept into a separate heap, to be wi.nu.wea when all the harvest is threshed. To make the sled.,., heav.er, the driver nsnally stands on it, or, as the time is one of general enjoyment one may see i„ covered with lau-h.n- children en oyin.r the slow ride round and round. It was such " threshin- instrur ents " that Araunah presented to David, uloi..' with the oxen and the im))lements of the thresh- au-lioor. tha he mi-ht have at once a saeriHce and the wo.uUo consume it.^ The word in Hebrew is " rnora;,^ and it is still retained in the form of " mowrej." or. in some parts of the country. " nora^^" ".o that there is no doubt as to Hie "instrument" Araunah was using. When Isaiah paints Israel on its return from captivity as " a new sliavp morag having teeth," he refers to the same threshing -sledge as is used to-day, and it is to Uus that Job compares Leviathan when he says that his underpart. are like sharp potsherds ; he spreadeth, as it were, a thrediing-wain upon the mire."^ A more com- pj^a.n) form of threshing-machine, known as a thresli- in- waggon, is used in some places, consisting o. a frline like that of a harrow, with three revolving axles set in it like so many wheels, provided with projecting iron teeth ; a chair being fixed over them for the driver, who Is prot.'cted by their being covered with a wooden case on the side next him. Such a wheeled threshing- sledge was already in use in the days of Isaiah, and even 2 !ob'xl;.'w'(B!v.). Tl.e three texts quoted are the only ones iu which '■ niorag " occurs iu the Old T(.'staiueut. [TUiR [CUAT. vn.j opariitc'tl and tho , The "tcbeu," L'swirily ipixt'd, is hori' it ^'nulually 1h' ^'liiin are next \rvi\ when all the [Ve heavier, the 1 is one of general au«,'hin<^ chiklren, 1(1. It was such resented to David, its of the thresh- sacrifice and the w is " iiioraj^," and kvrej,'' or, in some there is no doubt IS using. When n captivity as "a •efers to the same and it is to this e says that " his he spreadeth, as it ." 2 A more com- novvn as a thresh- s, consisting of a ree revolving axles .ed with projecting hem for the driver, red with a wooden wheeled threshing- of Isu/ih, and even iro the ouly ones iu which ASWnon MEJDEL. 140 dnnvn hy horses for the pr.,ph,.t tells ns that " fltehes ur. no thresl...! w.th a sharp n.orag; neither is the w | of « thres Inng-uuggon rolhnl over the eunnnin. Hread-eorn .s tluvslu.l out but yet one does not k.-ep o„ thnvshin.. if for ever nor do,, h. crush it [the kornelj sn.all with U,. wheel of Ins threshing-wangon or with his horses" I whieh drag the waggon,.. In I'rovvrbs we are further told that H w,se k.ng w.nnoweth away the wicked, and bringoth e thres nng-wh..el over hin.." an allusion to the dreadful custom of condennnng prisoners of war. whon especially hated, to be cut into sn.all pieces by driving over the.n a threslnng-waggon, or threshing-sle.lge. with its rows of iron sp.kes or sharp stones, till their Hesh was torn off in jnorsels l|„s was apparently the hideous fate assi-M.e.l by Dav.d to some of the Anunonite prisoners tak.-n Ttfter the capture o( liabbah,^ and, indeed, seems to have been usual in war m those ages, for the Syrians boasted that they had destroye.l Israel till they were like the .lust caused by thresh.ng-into pieces so small had they cut he prisoners who suffered their fury. Syn'a i„de,,i appears to have been specially given to this dreadful savagery^ for Amos tells us that Damascus-that is. the Jung of byna- would suffer the fierce vengeance of Jehovah for having " threshed the people of Gilead with the sharp iron teeth of threshing-waggons." ^ Thank Gcxl. infamous though war is still, it does not stoop to To winnow the grain is severe work. and. as such, is loft > the men. It is mostly done, just as in the days o i. -h in the evening and during the night, when the r. it-wind is blowing.^ The cool breeze which in .he onths comes from the sea in a gentle air b. the sumn.v,. * Ih!(. xwiii. 27. * 2 Sam. xii. 31. " Amos i. 3. * Ruth iii. 2. I 160 THE HULY LAND AND THE BlULE. [Chap. uu.rninf;. -rows stron-.-r tox.1ir.lH suusot. nu.l l.h.ws till about ton o\.lo.k, niusin^^ th. " n.ul ..l' tlu- .lay or. us .t is in the Hebrew, " tlu- wind of th. cUty. m wln.-h .l.hovah walk...! iu I'M.n ; ' tlu- tin... ti l whu-h u- Hclovcl >vaH to fo...l Lis ll.u^ks mn.>n- tl.e l.h.'H. wlu'U tl.e darkness w..nl.l Lav.. Imn fn-e to m-k her wl...n. lus son. love.l. in tl..' pleasant h.>nrs when tl.e air was eooledby the ni^ht win.1.2 Too stn.n^' a win.l, however, is av.mle.l. us Jer...niah shows was the custom in his .lay-" A dry Ihotl win.l [will blow] fn.m tl.e bare j.laces ot the w.i.ler- noss . . . not to fan n.)r to cl.'anse, but a stron-er win.l "^ " Winnow not with every win.l," had, unleed. heomo a proverb as long ago as the days of the Son of Sirach.^ The chaff, grain, and " teben, wlm-h hav;e gradually been gathen-d into a great cntral m.)und, are tlrown up against the wind with a wooden fork. s.,nietinies of two prongs, but rn.)re c..unn.>nly with five .>r six ; the broken straw being caretully preservt^d to throw into the centre, while the chuff is allowed to blow away. A sieve is also used n.)w, generally by women : a light, half-oval wooden frame, about a yard across, with u course hair or palm-fibre bottom ; he winnower holding it by the round side and tossing up th.' grain from it against the wind.^' Two winnowings are necessary : the first to separate the " teben and the chatt ; the second to sift out the unthreshed ears and pieces of earth mixed with the grain. The fork, or shovel-for sometimes a wooden shovel is used, like half of a small barrel-lid, the round side towards the handle— hnally separates the grain completely, so that it is ready to be put into the garner. Images taken from the threshing- « Cant.1i. n. TUi8 is tl.o true rondrng of Ihe words. "Till the day dawn." 3 Jor. iv. 11. « Ecc'us. V. 9. ' Amos ix. 9. ULB. [Chap. VII.J ASHDOD-MKJDKL. and l)l«>ws till «• any," or, as it day," in which till which the ' lilies, wlu-n the T whom his sou! ir was cooled hy ^•ever, is avoided, lis day—" A dry 30S of the wilder- hut a stron^'cr lid," hud, indeed, ys of the Son of ?n," whi'di have central mound, \ u wooden fork, commonly with refuUy preserved atr is allowed to jw, generally by ne, about a yard l)re bottom ; the md tossing? up the winnowings are m " and thechafV; >ars and pieces of rk, or shovel — for